Hollywood & Hope for Humanity

I was standing on Hollywood Boulevard for a few hours.

A buddy of mine moved to California, and I helped drive the truckload of his life out west. As the movers unloaded my friend's rental truck and hauled his possessions upstairs to his new apartment, it was my duty to guard the truck, or more specifically, its contents.

To my right was Little Armenia, and to my left was the liveliness of H&H (Hollywood & Highland), the Walk of Fame, Graumann's, and the Capitol Records Tower poking its spire over the other buildings. The famed Hollywood sign floated overhead somewhere, overseeing the proceedings. But, I didn't have line-of-sight for it unless I was on the nicely appointed roof deck of my friend's apartment building.

Sometimes, the traffic light that served as the gateway to Little Armenia would back up traffic where cars were stopped in front of me. Occasionally, I got the sense that some of these passers-by were wondering why some chubby guy was standing in front of a building reading a book in the relentless and atypical heat. Perhaps the motorists magically discerned I was a Texan and glared at me accusatorily for bringing the heat with me.

"Hey!" Someone was yelling. "Do you need some food?"

Oh, great. Heckle the fatboy. Geez.

But, when I looked up, I saw that the woman shouting was doing so at the two pedestrians that had just passed me. The pedestrians were dirty and carrying lots of their belongings (at least I guess the belongings were theirs and not my friend's, as I'm uncertain since I was reading) in a manner that suggested they were down on their luck and possibly homeless.

Shouting Woman hopped out of the passenger side of the banged-up, '70s model truck and pulled two large bags from a pile of similar bags in the truck bed. She tossed them to the pedestrians. "There's lots of really good food in here. Enjoy it. And have a good day."

Well, I don't really think she said "have a good day" as she climbed back into the truck. Perhaps it was "keep up the fight." Whatever the phrase, it intimated her understanding of what they were going through and encouraged them to remain strong in their life-journey and know that there were people that cared about them.

Shouting Woman and the man driving the food-dispensing truck both appeared to be people who were dealing with difficult times, much like the two pedestrians. They could've easily been the two recipients of that scenario on some previous day. (And I like to think that's the case, because it belies some compassionate cycle of life.) I presumed that Shouting Woman and her cohort were probably volunteering to distribute the large food bags via some shelter or civic program that had likely helped them, too.

The whole scene left me infused with hope for humanity. People helping people is a good thing. People trying to assert their own sense of superiority by subjugating people that are unlike them with legislated bigotry or social bullying is a bad thing.

I'm just saying.