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the lazy, those people that don’t do anything with their lives. They crawl from job to job, paycheck to paycheck, somehow finding satisfaction in scraping by.

“I don’t have a problem with the first two,” he said. “They’re making an honest living. But those lazy people? They’re ridiculous. They piss me off. They’re up to no good. And the worst part is that they drain the life out of everybody else.”

“I’ll give you an example,” he continued. “You ever seen crabs in a pot? When one of them climbs to the top to try to get out, all the other crabs grab him and pull him back in. Misery loves company. That’s what I’m talkin’ about.”

He went on to explain his view that we live in a society that allows everyone the freedom to do what he or she wants with his or her life. “If you want to make something of yourself, you can do it,” he said. Conversely, if you want to be a bum, you have the freedom to be a bum. America allows us that choice.

“But, you also gotta understand something, Shep,” he continued. “Some of the people in the lower class start out behind. We all have the same freedoms, true, but those of us born into poverty don’t necessarily have the guidance.” Many people, he reminded me, are not fortunate to grow up with two loving parents and a backyard and somewhere to go after school. They grow up on sketchy sides of town, and their social activities are limited to whatever their friends are doing after school, which usually aren’t very legitimate activities.

“But, I’ll tell you this,” he said. “There comes a time for everybody that it’s time to grow up. I mean, look at me. I came from a broken home. Mama’s got six kids. No daddy. Maybe the lights will turn on today; maybe not. Eatin’ mayonnaise and pickle sandwiches. I started out less fortunate than most people, and I lived my life accordingly. Streets, drugs, violence…all that. But then I turned twenty and realized that it was time to shape up or I would be in prison or dead just like everybody else I knew.”

Leo loved talking just as much as I loved listening. And he really loved using big words. He would add extra emphasis whenever he would say a word like irreverent or eradicated and his eyes would light up with delight, as if to say, “Yeah, eradicated. That’s exactly what happened. It got eradicated. Man, I’m smart.”

It was fascinating to meet some of those people at the shelter. Sure, Crisis Ministries had its fair share of laggards and old, bearded men with whiskey on their breath, just like the hobos I had imagined, but what about the other guys like Marco and James and Rico and Easy E, who had been dealt a crappy hand of cards, but really, genuinely cared about getting their life back in the right direction? While I had anticipated meeting a wide variety of people and confronting all kinds of attitudes, it was still a bit of a surprise to meet guys like them, just as it was a huge surprise to obtain lessons in social science from Leo, who never finished the tenth grade. I wondered—and would never know for sure—why a guy like Leo could be so grounded, while other guys, many from the same circumstances, were lazy or had given up.

So, there it was. It had taken me ten days, but I had a job, and I was finally to the point where I could rest easy. True, I had less than a hundred bucks in my pocket, but I had the job for which I had been anxiously waiting. While the argument could be made that my project had only just begun, I knew that time was the only thing standing between my goals and me. Discipline and patience would get me there. As I laid my head on my sleeping bag’s built-in inflatable pillow that Sunday night, with the restlessness of a five-year-old preparing for his first day of kindergarten running through me, I prepared myself for the leisurely part of my project: working and saving money.

Then again, if you know anything about moving furniture, you know that my life was going to be anything but leisurely.

NINE

“FIRST AND LAST DAY”

Monday, August 7

For my