Australian Open 2005

It's a damp Saturday morning and John Doe is awakened by the sound of a garbage truck barging by at 6am in the morning. He wipes the dew off his face and sits upright on the park bench, his bed for the night. Lucky for him it's the middle of January and it wasn't too cold, but the soft rain last night woke up the arthritis in his shoulders. He then felt a light drop of rain on his forehead. Picking up his belongings, he walked briskly out of Flagstaff Gardens and proceeded south into the inner CBD.

John's search proved fruitless until all the way in Little Collins St. The back of the Centrepoint arcade was dead quiet and there was no sign of life yet. He settled just at the foot of the entrance and fell straight back to sleep.

"Oi, you can't sleep there mate." a deep voiced trembled. John woke up to find a security guard shooing him away, whilst opening up the arcade. Feeling hungry, he felt into his pockets and fished out some coins. Looks like he might have to forego food again. Nonetheless, John's day has begun.

Knowing it's a Saturday, John is counting on people to spend their time in the city. After a few hours of walking the streets, looking for any opportunities to hassle people for change or get free goods that he can resell, the sudden frenzied activity around Bourke St. Mall tells him it's lunch time. Today, he decides to target Hungry Jacks in Bourke St. Mall.

"Two dollar, two dollar? Two dollar, two dollar?" comes the monotonous chant.
"'Ey man, I got nothing, fully. I need my money" the delinquent justifies. He stumbles towards the counter and says loudly, "I've got gold coins man! Hey! Gold coins..."
John looks with envy at the shiny gold currency in the man's hands. He then remembers his own need and turns to a woman with kids.
"Two dollar, two dollar? Two dollar, two dollar?"

I walk down the escalators of Hungry Jacks, Bourke St. Mall, neurotically checking my phone every few steps. I only have a 20 minute break and the security guard took ages to find my bag. I would have to shove that Whopper down quick. I see a long line at the counter and before thinking a curse word in my head, I hear some derro druggie shouting at the Hungry Jacks staff. I then manage to comprehend what he's saying and realise he's just offering gold coins in place of notes. Then I hear, "Two dollar, two dollar?" coming from a man in an orange jacket. He was a bum asking a woman for money, probably to feed his drug habit.
"No, he's at Hungry Jacks, maybe he wants money for food." I correct myself. I roll my eyes because I see him coming towards me, his eyes targeting mine. I look away but the sneaky bastard comes round the other side.
"Two do..."
"No, no two dollar," I interrupt. He quickly sees that I have no time for this friendly encounter so he leaves to bother the girl behind me. I shook my head at the disgrace, even though I felt guilt through the knowledge that I had a $20 note sitting in my wallet. So, I reasoned that technically I wasn't lying.

I buy my food and sit down to eat. The little girl behind me was now complaining to her parents about the poor man who asked her for $2. Her parents are a little shocked and "tsk tsk" away, but are understanding and go to buy the food which had been originally the girl's task. While trying to eat quickly, I thought about the impact that man would have had on people's lives. Most people, including me, would just be repulsed at the time, pass the event off as another story to tell your friends about encountering a bum and leave it at that.

Should I have given him $2? Should I have at least had the courtesy to let him finish his sentence and tell him nicely, no. Should I even be blogging about this, using this forum as an attempt to alert other people to the danger of bums? Truth be told, I have not put much thought into it. On one hand, this guy could have been a real struggler and could have done a lot with the two dollars. On the other, he could've just been another junkie looking to finance his next hit. The fact of the matter is, I don't know his situation, I don't know if he's even homeless. But what I do know is that I try and learn from every lesson. I know I always complain about things, I'm often picky, fussy and pedantic. But do I remember a fundamental lesson I learnt when I was young? "Look not at what you don't have, but what you do have."

It'll be foolish of me to expect to constantly follow and remember wise advice but I hope to do the best I can. I've been fortunate enough to have the basics; sanitation, money and food. I've been lucky to have a supportive family and a network of friends. I've been blessed to know about and consequently having a relationship with God. I hope I always realise this and be thankful, but I know I'm far from perfect and instead of remembering life's lessons through unwanted experiences and sharing them for the betterment of friends, I will most likely talk about the tennis season and probably the only thing existing in my memory from today was that I saw Steffi Graf shopping at David Jones .