Human Scavenger

I have been a little too trip-tired for the past few days to write much of anything and to tell the truth I just woke from a very pleasant afternoon nap. It was reminiscent of the naps I would have in the afternoons when I was working on a warm, sunny fall day. Those were good days.

Louise and I went downtown to donate blood today, she has donated 64 times and today was my 75^th donation. I don’t do it for the lapel pins; I do it for the cookies!

On the way home we were driving along a one way street when a young man carrying a small bag bolted across the road in front of us. I figured that he was trying to catch a bus, but commented that someone should stop that guy. We drove a little further and saw that there were indeed some people chasing him. I suppose that he did a snatch and grab on some poor woman’s purse while she was doing her Saturday morning grocery shopping. It happens all the time I suppose, but thankfully (touch wood) it has never happened to me.

The words “scumbag”, “asshat” and “waste of flesh” were bandied about for a few minutes and then we focused on the news and weather for the day. I came home, raked some leaves, cut the grass on the back lawn and Louise and I went to the advance poll to vote for the candidate of our choice. All in all, it was a pretty normal Saturday afternoon.

My thoughts keep going back to that young man running across the street with the woman’s purse. I’d like to think that a series of negative life situations had brought him to the point where he felt forced to grab that particular purse. There have been times when I might have taken the “easy” way out of my situation, but generally I have been lucky in my life.

Of course, this could just be a dirt bag that is too lazy to work and feels that the world owes him a living. It is easier to steal from the helpless than show up five days a week to do a job that seems meaningless. The job isn’t meaningless if you feed yourself and put a roof over your head. It isn’t meaningless if you can look in a mirror and feel that the world is a better place with you in it. It isn’t meaningless if your parents can think that they did a good job raising a fine boy. It isn’t meaningless if your little child thinks that someday they want to be just like you.

He was probably just a human scavenger that lives on the edge of society, preying on the unsuspecting and taking advantage of opportunities like an unguarded purse in a shopping cart. I would have been doing society a favour if I had put my foot to the floor and created some road kill. Nah…then someone working at a meaningless city job would have to scrape the scum off the street.