12 Apr “Maybe They Don’t Mind”

Years back, on a frigid winter evening, my son, Max, 8, and I walked passed some homeless men setting up their cardboard sleeping surfaces under an overhang at the foot of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church on 5th Avenue and 55th Street in New York City.

Seeing them with few liberties for food and shelter, I commented: “When you grow up, if you’re not successful, this is a kind of prison where you might find yourself.”

Max replied: “Maybe they don’t mind.”

“Wow! Role reversal. The homeless are free and I’m a prisoner of a bourgeois mindset,” I said; followed by a good laugh that warmed the evening.