The Materialistic Homeless

I have always admired the homeless for endurance and their minimalist quality. They have figured out a system to cope with not having what other people consider as the bare necessity - a roof over their head.

On my way to work I see that homeless guy; let’s call him Jack. He is usually on the move very early in the morning. I am not sure where he comes from or where he is going. But he moves with speed and resolve like a soldier on a mission. Personally if I was homeless, I would sleep in and start moving a little later in the day to avoid the motorists speeding to their workplace.

Jack packs all his belongings in a rusty supermarket shopping cart. Day after day I noticed that the load in the cart was getting bigger and bigger. I thought Jack is stocking for the cold winter. The stuff started to hang over the sides of the cart. One could tell it was getting heavier and heavier by how far Jack bent forward to pull it. Yet he continued to make his daily pilgrimage. I thought of stopping by to talk about the benefits of traveling light. At this point a storage space seemed as equally important for his survival as food.

But before I gathered enough courage, Jack surprised me with a bigger move. He acquired a second shopping cart and hooked it up to the first one. It had as much stuff as the first one. I noticed a ceramic toilet bowel in the hauled cart.

This reveals an interesting side to human nature. It is materialism that drives a homeless man or someone who lives in an eighteen-bedroom mansion on the north shore to fill every square inch available with junk.