A Free Tutoring Service: Preparing For the Future

 On the Lookout for Art  generates "A Spark of Creativity" see story below. (Dedicated to "Dixie", a wonderful Human Being.)                                

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 Creativity begets Creativity.  After viewing this artwork, I had to create something. And so I did! I created "Normality" for Dixie.

                                                 Normality ....To Dixie of Long Beach

Homeless!...How many are there? (Photo taken on Wilshire Boulevard in nearness to Beverly Hills.)

February 16, 2003                                                                                       By Cleophas McAlpin 

She is fixing up her cup of coffee at a McDonald’s fast foods restaurant on the corner of Anaheim and Long Beach boulevards in the City of Long Beach, California. She speaks to me. She says “good morning” as any other normal happy diner would on this beautiful Sunday morning at 8:30 A.M. 

She says “good morning” and I answer with my own “good morning”. She does not hear my reply because she is too busy with her cup of coffee. She is adding more cream and sugar to her tall cup. She adds so much cream and sugar as a matter of fact, that it causes me to remember the words spoken to me by a friend when he saw me add 3 sugars and 2 small caps of cream to my coffee. “You really like coffee in your cream and sugar” the friend had said to me. Of course that was a caution against adding too much sugar to my coffee as a guard against diabetes. 

I watch her and I wonder how much coffee was in the cup in the first place! There had to be no more than a teaspoon, judging by how much cream and sugar she added to the syrupy mixture. I watch with fascination as she stirs the mixture. 

She says “good morning” to another onlooker who stands in line behind me and waits his turn at the cream and sugar counter. He grins at me and shakes his head, unbelieving of how much cream and sugar could be added to one simple cup of coffee. He gets his turn, but alas, the cream and sugar containers have been completely emptied by the lady who smiles as if saying, “I’m sorry”. 

She turns to walk away but stands for a minute and stares at me. She says “good morning” again. Her words are in the present, but her mind is somewhere lost in the past. She speaks as a matter of human response to a situation. She has seen such situations many, many times before. But her mind is elsewhere. I wonder where her mind is. 

She is dressed extra warm for this pleasant Sunday morning in February. Were she in New York, or some other eastern state, her dress would have been appropriate. But she is in Southern California, where the temperature is near to 70 degree. I wonder if she is too warm in her heavy grey wool jacket and her jogging pant. She also has a heavy scarf on her head and I wonder if she is sweating underneath it.  

Her shoes have paint on them. There are many colors of paint on her shoes and her pants. Her jacket shows even more colors of paint. 

Her face has some sort of makeup. There is a glow of red and a glow of pink. There is the heavy red lipstick and the slight yellowish teeth beneath. Her face is black, but the heavy makeup makes it look surreal.  

She smiles again and I smile back. She then decides to add more sugar to her cup of coffee and that is when I decide to take a look outside at her “house”. 

There it was: One shopping cart and a wheel chair. I took a quick inventory, being cautious as to not seem too conspicuous in doing so. There were two large bleach bottles attached to the shopping cart and some kind of liquid stood inside. There were several plastic bags hanging from the handles of the wheel chair. There were several rolls of French bread in clear plastic containers. There were newspapers inside the shopping cart. There were no blankets. I surmised the newspapers made up for the blankets. 

She is homeless. She is another addition to the list of homeless persons that I have begun to document. She is different in that she does not appear homeless at first glance. Perhaps, she has perfected the art of appearing “normal”. 

How many homeless persons walk the streets of our beautiful cities of America? How many of us “normal” people pay them no mind? How many of us “normal” people simply look upon them as a “normal” part of American Society? How many of us are “normal” in doing this? Are we so removed from those who have lost the ability to lead “normal” lives that we can ignore the plight of the homeless? 

She leaves the McDonald’s in Long Beach. She leaves to sit in her wheel chair. One would think that she in an invalid at first glance. She has perfected the art of looking like a “normal” human” being. I wonder if she truly believes she is fooling anyone. 

One would think that she is a normal, clear thinking human being. One would think that she is a Doctor or a Lawyer or a Professor on an early morning wheel chair excursion if it was not for her “home”. One would think that she has a family at home waiting for her to return from her stroll. One would think that she has loving and caring children and grand children at home. She is, after all, approximately 55 years of age. One would think that she is the most well-rounded and happy of us all. 

The fact is, she is not a clear thinking human being, but another human being that is lost…..lost…..lost. 

She is homeless.