Imagine your impression of the world, apprised from the sidewalks?

Have you seen couples living on the streets? Hippies?.White folks with dreadlocks, in tie-dye clothing they’ve patched themselves. Sometimes infants bulge in papooses.

Imagine you were one such child?

Would you remember, in years to come, how your mother danced bare foot with ankle bracelets of bells?

Would you think fondly of your father the musician with his handmade lyres? Will you think of him at all?

You might be brilliant, possibly even a genius. Does the chaos whence you wound drag you down? Will the hardened scars strangle you as you query the circumstances? Now older, jumpy, quick to anger, your heart languishes in a low-grade but permanent state of trauma.

By dint of your experiences you will likely become a taker. You will  justify your behavior because you are convinced you were dealt half a deck of cards, by your reckoning you are helping yourself. You will snatch at shiny objects. Precious orbs to be collected, some even human. Exciting until they crack.

You take, you grab, you never consider this theft. But it is, if only in the fundamental human contract of trust, you break the social order. You think you have gained, in truth, you have lost yet more footing. I’ve no doubt you’ll succeed but that’s because you’re shooting for the middle.

I’m not offended by the hustler. I’ve displayed tendencies myself when times have demanded it. The effective  ‘hustler’ must display self-awareness; humility to balance the desperation whirling behind their terrified eyes. For them I’ll extend a hand. As hands have been offered me, to hoist me from the gaping abyss. Angels paying forward is the survival of the urchin. I’ve been there and I’ll never forget their interventions without which I would not have made it, not sane anyway.

If you are born into a game, by definition, you are programed to win. Meantime, the half cracked peppercorns live amongst us. Look out, but more importantly, look up.

image by http://www.nancyberry.com