I was on my bike leaving a grocery store and in a spot of tall grass there was a homeless guy kneeling alongside his bike. Which was loaded with stuff.

Thinking he may have had a flat tire as I went by I asked if he had everything he needed. He replied "Yes" and I went on.

About 2 seconds later I hear him yell, "I NEED A LIFE!"

Well, I've stayed in touch with him when our paths cross, and about 10 years after we first met, one Sunday morning, he said that times had been tough, someone must have been travelling his "route", there were no bottles or cans. Could I let him have a couple of bucks?

I told him I didn't know what I had, but we could do something. I pulled out my wallet and opened it. I'm staring down at a lone $20 bill, and he's staring down at the same $20 bill.

I look up at him, he looks up at me, neither of us says anything.

I gave him the $20. It meant a lot more to him than it did to me. Except for a twinge at the time I've never regretted it. And he and I still see each other, still visit, and every year or two he asks for a couple of bucks. No more often than that. And lately I've started volunteering $5 or $10. He's getting older.

What he spends it on is none of my business, whatever gets him through the night. I'm not going to teach him any lessons.

He showed up with a new bike a while back. I was afraid he might have stolen it, was afraid to ask. When I commented on it, he said that insurance paid for it. Car hit him. That's all he asked for.

He had a metal rod sticking straight up from the carrier on the back of his bike. I touched it, and asked if it was for a radio.

Horrified. "Are you kidding!!?? A radio!!??"

He pulled it out to reveal a hook in the end. "That's for getting cans and bottles out of the bottom of these trash receptacles around here."

A Vietnam vet, he's gotta be getting up in years. And he does disappear for 6 months at a time, says he was in the hospital. I've asked him why he doesn't live in a group home. "After a while I just don't get along very well with people." So I guess he's homeless by choice.

If he goes before I do I'll miss him. And while the "system" screwed him over, I can't help but think that it has also tried to make it up to him.

There but for the Grace - - - . I can't help but think that if it weren't for some very nice, very patient people in my life who saw something I couldn't that I would be in the next hole over.