Page 34 - Contrast1971Spring

some, dark complected face. I asked him to join me at my table and he accepted. He said
a short prayer to himself at the beginning of the meal. During the meal he ate very little and
drank his wine sparingly. Conversation, during the meal, was at a minimum. Each of us seemed
to be wrapped up in his own thoughts.

After the meal, I offered him one of my cigars, but he declined. I settled back with
mine and asked.

"Well, did you enjoy yourself today?"
"Yes, and no," he .answered. "I enjoyed seeing things and talking to people, but I did
not enjoy what I saw and heard."
I looked puzzled. The show started, so we turned to watch. The skit was about a partially
unclothed gal, who was being seduced by an oversexed male type man. She finally gave in, and
they headed off stage. Nothing was left to the imagination.
"I hope she gets what she wants," my friend said with a look that, had it been anyone
else, I would have called a leer. On him it wasn't.
"She probably will, " I answered, feeling a bit uneasy. This kinda stuff goes on all the
time. To change the subject, I asked,
"So you don't like what you see in the big city?"
He looked at me and asked, with a frankness that was frightening,
"Do you like what you see there or anywhere."
"Oh, I don't like it, but that's the way it is. And being realistic, what can I do?"
A drunk at the bar was getting rowdy and started shouting obsenities at the audience.
"No, I guess you can't. This world is a place of many troubles."
"Sounds like you hate it."
"I, hate this world?

"I, hate this world? No I dont't hate it. There is too much good, but it is buried deeply.
The world is being deafened by its own noise, the youth lack guidance, the land itself is being
destroyed by the people who inhabit it. Kindness in people is being subdued, love forgotten."

"Sounds like a good campaign speech." I was being serious. Here was a man who was
good himself, yet he did not knock other people because of their faults. Compared to his good-
ness and compassion, we lack something. Above all he wanted to help more than criticize.
I'd vote for him any time he wanted to run for mayor, or anything else for that matter.

He sat there staring out at the people with a sad, but expectant look on his face. He
looked like he was ready to do good. I smiled at the thought. I liked him, and he had made an
ordinary day more interesting by his conversation. After tonight, I'd probably never see
him again.

.."By the way, what's your name?" He turned to me and with a slight smile said,

"Christ, Jesus Christ."