the meaning of life eludes me

In my continued resolve not to study/be productive I've opted against watching a Netflix right now and decided to post a picture i took over the weekend.



So I was reading some notes at a coffee shop on Northside and listening to Radiohead, not really being that productive. I was just walking to reading places around campus partly for a change of venue, partly because my attention span is bad for anything except for WoW. Anyways this homeless guy sits down at the table next to mine, and it's a little awkward 'cause 'cmon he's homeless, and I'm there listening to music off my cell phone and reading notes that were printed from a laser printer. So he sits down and starts sipping from his cup (could've been coffee, could've been tea) and after a few minutes he gets up and walks towards the counter. I'm seeing this out of the corner of my eye since I was "studying" but more importantly I was trying not to stare. I didn't think to myself "I must photograph this homeless man" until after he came back. I noticed he had started writing on some napkin with a pen. As sneaky as I am with my phone, I don't think I would've been able to get close enough to take a picture of his writings.

At first it was just curiosity at seeing what a man whose possessions could fit into a plastic garbage bag would feel compelled to write about. And not just scribble on a napkin, he was writing with purpose and he was writing in English. Maybe he was writing about this asshole that was took a picture of him at Brewed Awakening, or maybe why HDDVD sucks, or maybe something more legitimate. He wasn't writing to put off studying for his midterm tomorrow, he went out of his way to put whatever was in his mind on paper. (and not conveniently i might add, writing on napkin with a ballpoint pen is fuckin hard.) So what if? What if this guy had figured out the secret of life and he had nobody to share it with. That means all the world's secrets could be on a piece of napkin somewhere on Northside. So close... yet so far away.

I really hope that guy doesn't read this blog.