at the top of the ramp.

Several times a week, there's a homeless guy standing at the top of the exit ramp when I go to work. There are actually two different guys, but they're sort of similar. They have backpacks and short graying hair peeking out from baseball caps. Their clothes are mostly clean and hole-free, but used-looking, like they might be someone else's yardwork clothes. The only reason I know that there is more than one homeless guy is because of the signs. They're both cardboard, but one of them says "HOMELESS and HUNGRY" while the other says "HOMELESS BUT JESUS LOVES ME." I imagine they both have their rounds, where they hit this corner on one day, but have different high traffic areas on other days. I wonder if they even know about each other. They could have coordinated the whole schedule, offering tips of good spots to each other. Or maybe they've never met, just coincidentally working the same spot on different days of the week, two down-on-their-luck ships passing in the night.

I don't know how to feel about these guys. I met a homeless guy once, when he came to talk to one of my classes in college. He was quiet and clean, just a regular and successful guy who had been dealt a bad hand, couldn't hang, and ended up on the street. I never give money to people on the street, but I usually feel an urge to give away my lunch. I mentioned this to a girl at work once and she retorted that they only wanted money. She said that she once saw a news report that revealed some people made as much as $60,000 standing on the side of the road. The hatred in her voice surprised me. People are scared of the homeless. Is it because they think they'll get mugged or because they wonder if they could end up the same way?

I never give away my lunch though. I sit in my car and avoid eye contact the way I've been taught to do. Those guys see hundreds of people every day, but no one sees them. They are people, but they are not.

This morning, there was a car pulled over at the top of the exit ramp, and a business man was talking to today's homeless guy. The business man was a well-dressed with a Bluetooth earpiece attached to his ear. There didn't seem to be any sort of friction, just a couple of guys talking. I kept my eye on them while I waited for the light to change. It was nice that someone talked to the homeless man, actually reached out to him as a person instead of simply extending a few coins out of a car window. I checked the light again, and when I looked back, the business man and the homeless guy were holding hands with their heads bowed and their eyes closed.

The light changed and I moved on, feeling hopeful about the human race and yet knowing that my car would likely never be pulled over at the top of the exit ramp.