(Cincinatti, OH) -     For those who didn't know, when I was an undergrad, I wrote a daily commentary and sent it to the masses via the internet.  Law school and then the real world hampered these developments.  Sometimes an issue will spur me enough to get back on my high horse and write.  One of those occasions just occurred.  BTW - thanks MTK for your inter-office memos on the U.N., that helped get the juices flowing again!

Thanks Norma.  Last night I was doing my usual workout at the downtown Cincinnati YMCA (the JCC just can't compare, sorry fellow members of the tribe), as I do on Monday nights (before WCW and the WWF come on television, of course).  However, last night was the first truly *cold* night of the season.  The Y that I use is about 2 blocks from the homeless drop-in shelter and is right around the corner from where former Bengals' head coach, Sam Wyche, began his pursuit to help the homeless.  Anyway, I digressed - it shouldn't matter where I was.  Regardless, as I was leaving, and before I passed the usual suspects on the street on the way to my car, a homeless man came into the Y and was speaking with some of the folks that work there.

He was not rude or offensive.  He was articulate.  He merely wanted to come inside for some warmth (it's no longer the day where "you can have a good meal or do whatever you feel," at the Y).  Nonetheless, he was discussing where he was going to sleep that evening and at what time the homeless shelter opened that evening.  Usually I think to myself, "Go down the damn street, go inside Wendy's (or any myriad number of places that are *desperately* seeking employees) and get a job!" or "Why didn't you just work harder or pay attention in school?"  Or "Stop drinking and maybe things will change."  But this gentleman said something to the folks behind the desk that really struck me.  He said, "I wish someone would just shoot me."

I don't know why this struck a chord, but it did.  Maybe no one will hire him because he doesn't look clean shaven. Would you if you were homeless?  Not everyone had the luxury of going to one of the best public schools in the city or the state, like I did, so maybe that was wrong of me, too, to assume that he just should've worked harder in school.  And, please, if I were in that situation, you're damn right I'd be drinking, so maybe it's the homelessness and joblessness that lead to the drinking and not vice versa (which then creates this perpetual cycle).  Maybe his family was messed up.  Maybe Oprah could come up with about a million other excuses that the guy could use (she *is* good for that).  I don't know.

Sometimes I, like many, have momentarily wished that someone would "just shoot me."  But, my goodness, I have nearly everything a person could want.  Great friends, a fascinating job, a roof over my head, etc., etc. But yet, this homeless guy (with maybe if he's lucky only the first of that list, tho I doubt it) continues to endure day after day after day of this torture.  I was homeless of sorts for two nights of my life, IN THE SUMMER. I really was.  Nowhere to live but my car, no money to speak of, no cash flow, and I had no idea where I would live from day to day.  Luckily a friend took me in for a while.  But it was frightening.  Sometimes fate or circumstance puts us in odd situations that we never would expect.  But to live this life night after night, day after day, in frigid weather and to know it's more or less permanent (in my case only a few days scared the hell out of me... okay, I'm a wuss)....

Life consistently is a challenge.  We all have our issues and our problems.  Sometimes, though, when I compare my problems to others' I realize that, yeah, sometimes it sucks not to have my life as "good" as it was when people thought I was someone else, but if that's the worst thing wrong in my life, then I guess I have it pretty good.  For everything that we may complain about day after day after day, let's realize how good we really do have it.

I'm not making a case for the homeless.  Their cause still will not be my charitable contribution of choice.  We all are of limited resources and must pick our battles carefully.  But this little incident made me realize how lucky I have it and how lucky I am to have all of you in my life.  Rather than giving my usual diatribe, I'm actually being ridiculously mushy.  Oh well, I'm getting caught up in the momentum of this holiday season (kinda like the NASDAQ, huh?).  So, please count your blessings, whatever they may be.  As someone once said, once you have the basics in life (and we ALL have the basics), life is just a game, so enjoy it.

I'm outta taglines 'cuz Jerry Springer stole mine.