10:14 p.m. | 2005-11-22 Over Exposure. After work tonight, I tended to an appointment and then stopped by the grocery store to pick up Thanksgiving-related food stuffs. By the time I pulled my car into a parking space near my home, it was creeping up upon 8:00pm and sufficiently dark to make it seem like it was 10:00pm. I gathered up my groceries and walked towards my building. I walked down the alley and approached the building heading towards the back stairwell. As I turned the corner, I came face-to-face with a homeless man who was squatting on building grounds doing his �business�. Right there out in the open alongside the sidewalk to the stairwell. As soon as he saw me, he stood up and then immediately pulled his shirtfront down in an attempt to cover up his bits. He sheepishly said �hi�. I averted my eyes, said �hi� back and quickly walked past him. He then inquired: �How are you?� Of course, I responded: �Fine, and you?� Of course. Because what else do you say? MyMother was fairly thorough with all the Miss Manners training but she never taught me the proper etiquette for when you encounter a homeless man who�s defecating not more than a few feet away from you � on private property � while you�re walking by carrying your groceries. Um. Yeah. It was an uncomfortable moment, for sure, but not a rude moment. Well, excepting all the nudity and private �business� matters. Which included quite a stench. (Not that you need to know that, but now you do.) Unfortunately, it�s not an uncommon experience either except that most of the time, it occurs in the alley, since that�s public property, and not in my �yard� so to speak. When it happens in the alley, there�s always a clear view from far away so I can take a detour and avoid the whole situation. This time? Not so much. I suppose I could�ve turned around and detoured but there really wasn�t any point in doing that since I�d already seen all there was to see and we�d already made eye contact. This experience was different though. See, there are some homeless who take great pleasure in making non-homeless people uncomfortable by pissing right in front of them on purpose. Always men, and they always piss as opposed to more serious business. And, of course, they look at you and leer at the same time. That might be designed to make me uncomfortable but it doesn�t. It annoys me and I stare �em down. Frankly, seeing a fully clothed man piss is not a big deal. What made this experience different was that this guy was trying to be private and really didn�t expect to be interrupted. This wasn�t something he was doing for shock value. As much as he wasn�t expecting to be interrupted, I wasn�t expecting to see a man squatting right next to a frequently traveled access way. As a consequence, when I came around the corner, I saw pure vulnerability and embarrassment in his eyes. If you�re not used to dealing with/encountering homeless people on a regular basis you probably don�t know how remarkable that is. When you live on the streets, you absolutely cannot be either vulnerable or embarrassed. Other folks will move in for the kill. Quite quickly, actually. I can still picture the expression on his face. I�ve never seen a homeless person in a vulnerable state before. But, there he was, standing not three feet from me with his pants around his ankles trying to pull his shirt front down to cover himself while attempting to apologize via etiquette. One of the many faces of humanity, I suppose. your thoughts? seed flower