If you want to have an interesting conversation, or at least one that is difficult to follow, talk to a five year old,,,,,,,, or a homeless guy. My second son is now five, and he is similar in several ways to a homeless alcoholic. He very rarely washes his hands, unless you force him to. He will yell unintelligible things at you once in a while. He can fall anywhere. We went to New York before Thanksgiving this year. He fell into the middle isle of the train twice. Once on the way there, and once on the way back. The other day, I left him standing in the entryway to our house while I went to grab my shoes. I came back one minute later, and he was sprawled on the floor. He had fallen in the middle of a perfectly flat floor. I looked around for something that he could have tripped over. Nothing.
One of the colleges I went to was around Washington D.C. Like any city, D.C. has its share of people who end up living on the streets. One time I was out with two of my friends. We were standing in the parking lot of a restaurant, when a guy with bushy gray hair and a beard approached us. When I saw him coming, three things went through my mind in rapid succession.
- He’s probably going to ask me for money.
- I hope he doesn’t try to rob me.
- Man will he be disappointed if he robs me. He’s probably got more money than I do.
But this guy just wanted to talk. We all stood there and talked for a while. There is a section of the conversation that still makes me laugh to this day.
Guy: (Staring at us intently) Have you ever heard of the NFL?
Me: Sure.
Guy: Have you ever heard of the Washington Redskins?
Me: Of course.
Guy: Have you ever heard of the mafia?
Me: Sure. So you think the mob is fixing football games?
Guy: (With a look on his face that tells me he has no idea why I would say something like that) NO.
Like I said, I am now raising my second five year old. So, I get to have conversations like this every day now. I still remember that one, though, because of how happy go lucky the guy was. One of my friends ended up giving him the hat off of his head after the guy mentioned how much he liked it several times. I hope things worked out for him. And by the way, sometimes I do think the mob is fixing football games.
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