Respect

I’m standing near a corner in San Francisco on a cool afternoon. Before me is a good friend of mine having her portrait made. I watch intently as the artist creates his pencil strokes on the mat, bringing her face alive on paper. Soon, a stranger appears behind me who my friend and I have seen before. With scraggly hair, beard, moustache, and with clothes that carry the filth of countless days and the odor of stale beer, he stands against the building behind me, intently watching the artist at work. In his hand he carries a beer in a bag; I wonder how long it took him to get the money to afford it?

As he slowly downs the beer he makes conversation with no one. He watches the artist and my friend. I begin to wonder why he watches so intensely. The pieces of his haphazard conversation that I pick up put me a little at ease.

     ‘This guy is good.’

    ‘More people should be here.’

    ‘He makes her look beautiful.’

I smile a little and try to avoid his eye contact. He’s unobtrusive, yet he’s still there. I am not fully at ease.

A little while later, a family walks by. Holding hands with her father is a beautiful little girl. The family ignores the stranger as they slowly walk by the artist. They look at the artist and his work, but the little girl watches the strange person. He notices her watching him. His conversation turns to her and for a few minutes, as she holds her father’s hand while her family watches the artist, the little girl spends a moment with the strange person. I could not hear the full conversation, but what I did catch made me think of the kindness this person might be capable of. I heard words he said to her like,

    ‘nice’

    ‘beautiful’

    ‘do good’

I watched the little girl watching the stranger. I saw her little face light up with a bright smile. She said a few sweet words to him. Her family slowly continued on, looking straight ahead, but the little girl continued smiling and looking back at the strange person. I heard him say his farewells. She smiled back at him and with a final farewell, she gave him a big thumbs up. I was taken aback. She just gave him something that very few have probably given him, this little girl gave him respect. I reevaluate my feelings towards this person and how I pretended he was not there. I looked back at the person and beneath all his outer coverings I saw a man.

All images & contents copyright © G.A. Trammel 1992 - 2003