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The guy had been saving up all of his money for almost a year. He had a steady job, family, and friends, but he wanted to make sure that he never had to resort to that lifestyle again. He wanted out and he wanted to stay out. His lack of expenses at the shelter enabled him to save up to pay for the down payment on a duplex in North Charleston, in which he would live in one side and rent out the other. Putting up with the shelter for a year had put that man in a position that he would never be one or two paychecks away from living at the shelter. He had security. He was prepared to confront financial disaster.

While James had no intention of staying at the shelter for a full year, it was that man’s attitude that fueled a completely different approach to living.

“I always had to have a fancy car with chrome rims and nice clothes. If you can afford it, cool. But if you can’t, you don’t need that shit. Right now, I just want my own restaurant.”

He had brought up a good point about society in America as a whole, not just the homeless shelter. A lot of us spend our lives living beyond our means. We rack up credit card debt and spend money on material items and vacations that we can’t quite afford. We splurge for a private-school education for our children, but then we offset it when we buy them the latest, mind-numbing video-game system and all of the cool games to go along with it. And we live in luxury homes and condos that we can’t even enjoy, because we have to work overtime to cover the mortgage payment. Why? Because we don’t know any better? Or are we compensating for a life that we didn’t have growing up? Couldn’t we be putting our money toward more worthwhile pursuits, like James intended to do with his own restaurant?

There was one other story that James told me that night. He had met a lady while he was living in Jacksonville several years before. She was homeless and in desperate financial need. Social Services had taken her children, and she needed to prove that she could support them before they would hand the children back over to her.

So she sat on the street corner. But, rather than sitting there with a cup in hand, begging for spare change, she held up a sign: IF I HAD A MOWER AND A TRUCK, I COULD START CUTTING GRASS AND MAYBE EVEN CREATE A FEW JOBS.

James rode by the same street corner every day, and for a month straight, he saw her sitting out there with her sign. Wind, rain, humidity, whatever. Didn’t matter. She was out there, every day, for a month.

And then one day, Poof! She was gone. He never saw her again.

“I can’t say for certain what happened to her. I’d like to think that she got her mower and her truck, and that she is doing well, but there’s no tellin’.” But that wasn’t the point. It was her attitude that inspired James. She wanted out, and she had an idea of where she wanted to go.

I spoke with James for nearly an hour that Wednesday night, and it helped me to gain insight into yet another homeless man’s life. He was different from many of the other guys. In fact, he shunned them, telling me that they never listened when he told them the same stories that he was telling me. I thought he was right on target with his message (although a complete idiot for going back to his ex-wife).

“Some of these guys want out, but most of them don’t,” he told me with an escalated tone, hoping that somebody would hear him and try to prove him wrong. “They’ll be journeymen for the rest of their lives.”

Sarge came through the common area, calling out some guy’s name that he needed to speak to. Nobody came forward. I often wondered who Sarge was looking for when he came through calling out names. He had busted two guys from “America’s Most Wanted” in his nearly ten years on duty at the shelter, so I’m sure he was always looking for his next big bust.

Which also really got me wondering about Sarge’s motive. What kept that man coming back to the shelter five nights a week for a beat that the