Man: Excuse me sir! I hate to bother you, but I just lost my job, I have nowhere to live and all the money I have in the world is a quarter. Can you spare some change to help a guy out?
Me: I tell you what! I'll help you out if you help me out. Do you know where the Hockey Hall of Fame is? I have some time to kill before I catch a train out of this rainy, humid and speeding shithole.
Man: I do know where that is! Just head down this street, hang a left on Front and walk about 20 minutes. You can't miss it. It's just past the train station.
(A toonie in the hand. A meal on the horizon. Or a bottle, but I really don't give a shit. If he needs medication he needs medication. That's what sustains all of us until we find the Answer. I say a prayer that it doesn't kill him though and call him my friend.)
Me: So, have you ever been to the Hockey Hall of Fame?
Man: Dude, I''m fuckin' homeless. I've got no place in the Hall of Fame.
Me: Neither do I, my friend. Neither do I.
Apparently, it's not the men I aspire to be but the men that are just like me that help me most. And that's exactly what I needed because in less than two hours I was going to face my biggest fear.
