The Bow-Legged Man Does the Right Thing - Part One

    The Bow-Legged Man Does the Right Thing

    In all corners of our planet there are the poor and struggling, the infirm and the indigent. Sometimes we see them, sometimes we remember them, and we contemplate them; we may write about them. I choose to do such a thing. 

    We were in a place where some people with extra money or time, or both, in quantities that make such things possible, were lounging and carousing. Soaking up warm airs, cool ocean currents and waves, watching the tourists play and posture, and observing and interacting with the local peddlers do the same. This is what I like to do. This is what I did, this vacation time off day. And I write about it, dwell on it, report my findings and feelings.

    Tours of a jet-ski, a banana boat, going out farther to perhaps snorkel or parasail. Shirts, towels, bracelets, necklaces, jewelry and other charms. Drinks--many alcoholic-- it was assumed we like to imbibe. Rum and pineapple libations, coconut and other fruity flavors with their punch to their punch.

    Men and women, and I saw young boys, too, hawking their wares. Making another buck, another bill. They were dark, dark-skinned peoples, these sellers. I wrote of the beer hawker at the baseball game last summer. Now it is Christmas time. I am fortunate to be in the presence of such vendors.

    In spiritual, religious, and human ways, we are all blessed to be in each other's ways, presence, worlds. They talk to me and mine and I return a verbal cue or gesture.

    The island is called Paradise. An illusion to a better, higher, more pristine place. Yet, there are the poor; many are visibly humble or even desperate of appearance. Hungry. Needing. Wanting.

    I learned of the bow-legged man. I was told there was one; I saw a man with a distinctive limp coming from the surf and shoreline. The north side of Paradise. I sat on the sand in the more shaded tree area. The sun was clear, the rays were doing their tricks on our fair skin. Most of us passerby tourists were white, fairer skinned. Not all. Us Americans have the people of all backgrounds, too. African-Americans, Indians from the sub-continent, Hispanics from Latin America. Asians from all parts, Arabs too. We are diverse. We, the relatively wealthy, are of all shades.

    The vendors were all of one hue, more or less. 

    The bow-legged man was not the one that I originally saw...

TO BE CONTINUED...