juan

Juan is a meth head that frequents the donut shop down the street from my place. Juan is my favorite vagrant by far. I keep track of the homeless in my area, as their faces are familiar, but Juan is the only one who seems to be in good spirits despite his circumstance. If he’s actually miserable, he does a good job of hiding it. There’s something about a grateful homeless person that can help you discover your own gratitude. It’s hard to complain when you’re sitting next to a meth head in good spirits.

I first gained Juan’s acquaintance when we shared a bench drinking coffee. Juan saw I was reading, and scooched over to the seat beside me. He had just completed sweeping the donut shop’s exterior, and was rewarded with 12 donut holes. A virtue of the shop that I don’t see shared by very many establishments.

“Hey man, what’s the difference being doing, ingesting, and consuming?” He chewed with his mouth open, and was very clearly enjoying the fruits of his labor.

“What? Why?” I hadn’t ever conversed with Juan prior, and was caught off guard by his unassuming approach. Either I didn’t present myself as guarded, or Juan failed to see the point in etiquette. I guess when you’re homeless, you stop caring about such things. An opinion I was beginning to share.

“Do I ingest something when I eat it?” A fair question. He scrutinized a donut hole while asking.

“Yeah, that would be ingesting something.” I responded.

“And consuming, what does consuming mean?” He asked, brushing flakes of sugar from his fingertips.

“I guess that’d be another word for ingesting, but you can consume a band-aid, for example. You consumed a package of band-aids.” I pointed at his wounded finger.

“And doing? Am I doing a donut hole?” I paused and thought about the question.

“No, I don’t think you do a donut hole. I mean, you can do donuts in a car, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone say they’re ‘doing’ anything in regards to eating.”

He paused, looked at what remained of his bag of dough, and offered me one.

“Okay so am I doing, ingesting, or consuming meth?” A shit-eating grin. We shared a laugh and I took him up on his offer.