It was a few minutes before 10pm on a fall Saturday night in Little Italy, a neighborhood in Chicago. I had just met up with a friend from Ohio for a drink at a really cool Irish Sports Bar. I was walking back to my car to head to a friends 33rd birthday party when I passed a man who was a bit unkempt on the street. He asked me if I could spare some change and unfortunately I didn't have any money. He then asked for one of the high noon's I had just bought and I told him "I'm sorry, I'm on my way to a party." As soon as I walked past him I felt terrible. I was in a hurry, as I was a couple hours late for the party but that was no reason not to give him time.
I got to my car and ventured in the direction he was walking. I saw him, found a spot and hopped out of my car to go talk to him. I introduced myself and I asked his name. That is something I try to do every time I meet someone on the street. He told me his name was Shawn. I remember the spelling because my brothers name is Sean, there is a bit of pride in the way to spell a name. Not quite to the level of Stephen vs Steven but its up there. As I was talking to Shawn we were near a Potbelly so I asked if he wanted something to eat, he said he would love a Pizza Melt so I went in and got him one.
After I gave him his sandwich we got to talking and I asked how long he had been on the street. He told me he has been on the street for 9 years and a little of his story. Apparently he is pretty well known in that area since he has been on the street for so long. He shared that he has been battling addiction to opiates due to long term pain but that he was clean when he first ended up on the streets. The lifestyle of living on the streets led to him putting himself in some bad circumstances and getting a bullet in his arm. The bullet was a ricochet shot from a homemade gun which he described in great detail. It looked like it had been there for awhile and it was causing him pain. He said he was thinking about going back to the hospital but he hated going there. He has been labeled a pill-seeker and most of the time the staff would try to treat him without giving any pain medicine. This led to him seeking relief from other less than reliable sources.
Shawn shared that he had a $150 a day opiate habit at one point last year and that he was now down to $20 a day. I was surprised when he said $150 a day and I asked how he could afford that. He mentioned one intersection downtown where people commonly hand out $10's & $20's. If he wasn't using the money to get relief from the pain then he would end up defending himself from other people that saw the money. Shawn said he was close to giving up, that 9 years on the street had worn him down to his breaking point but that he was in the mindset of bettering himself. I encouraged him to continue trying to be 1% better each day, something I picked up from reading Atomic Habits.
Shawn then hit me with a story from a great book "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill. He was pleasantly surprised that I had read the book and the story he brought up was the story of the gold prospector. For those unfamiliar, in the book there was a story of a speculator named RU Darby who bought a piece of land in Colorado during the gold rush. After weeks of manual labor had found a piece of shining ore. After his discovery he went back and borrowed money from family to afford the machinery needed to extract the gold. They shipped one car of ore and started thinking about paying off all the debts and the profits the mine would generate. Then all of a sudden the vein disappeared. The gold was gone and after they continued drilling for awhile they decided to give up and sell the machinery to a "scrap" man. The "scrap" man was very wise and consulted with a mining engineer who calculated the vein was just 3 feet from where Darby stopped drilling. The "scrap" man made a massive fortune from the mine and Darby was able to learn his lesson from his experience in stopping so close to success. He pursued a career in Life Insurance and never a let a "no" discourage him. He went on to become extremely successful and wealthy by never giving up.
Shawn and I discussed how the universe will often throw the biggest challenges to people right when they are on the cusp of a breakthrough. The key is to never stop. Shawn thanked me for the sandwich but more importantly for the time and conversation. He asked for my favorite book and I recommended "Become What You Are" by Alan Watts. He told me he will read it when he checks himself into rehab. I am inspired by people like Shawn, who are able to maintain a positive outlook despite facing some of the most difficult circumstances life can throw at them. I encouraged him to not give up and let him know that I believed in him and that he was close to breaking through. He said "You don't know what this conversation means to me, so many people judge and treat me like shit without knowing anything that I am going through."
In closing, I think it is extremely important to be kind. Be open-minded and give people a chance. We all are battling things that other people aren't aware of. We all are trying our best to navigate this modern world where people are only deemed valuable if they are generating a profit for someone else. I encourage anyone that is reading this to stop and talk to the next person you encounter that is living on the street. Introduce yourself and ask their name. I promise you they have a story and it's worth your time to listen.
