Why Not to Judge the Annoying Men on The Street

If you read the title of this blog, part of it says, "..the Annoying Men on the Street". And I mean literally annoying.

I don't know if you've ever met this breed of Annoying Men. You are driving and you stop at a red traffic light. As you patiently wait for the lights to turn green, suddenly, from out of nowhere, a man normally slightly dishevelled and scary looking, pops up next to your car, and with a flourish of his hand, throws some slightly soapy looking water on your car's front window shield.

Before you can say "Noo!" he is already midway cleaning your window with the wind shield cleaning tool in his other hand (and even if you say No he will ignore you). With a few deft strokes, he is finished and then stands next to your car window, waiting expectantly for some money.

All this happens in less than 5 seconds.

Not only have you received a slight scare but now you struggle with feelings of guilt of whether to hand over some spare change for his service (that you never wanted and never asked for) or end up feeling like Mr Scrooge. I hate these people. I truly do.

That is until this morning.

I was waiting for a friend in the car and she was running late. Straight ahead, I noticed an Annoying Man at a busy traffic light intersection. He was equipped with the usual tools, a small clear bottle of soapy water and a window cleaning tool in his other hand. As usual, he looked slightly dishevelled and scary looking. I continued to stare from the side of the street.

When the first car arrived at the intersection and stopped for the lights, he was out there, cleaning the car's window shield. He finished and he stopped for a moment at the car driver's window and luckily for him, received some payment. The lights turned green and he quickly returned to the curb, out of harm's way. I felt the familiar churn in my stomach.

The lights turned red again and more cars stopped at the intersection. As on schedule, Annoying Man dashed out to the cars and cleaned more window shields. But this time, the drivers stood their ground and refused to give him anything. I felt slightly relieved that I was not the only Mr Scrooge in the world.

This happened another time when the lights turned red again. I was about to turn my attention away when out of the corner of my eye, as Annoying Man returned to the curb, I noticed him rubbing his right cleaning upper arm several times hard, like it hurt.

For the first time, it suddenly struck me that Annoying Man was tired, probably hated this "job" but he was doing it because he really needed the money.

And suddenly, I saw other things...how some cars hooted at him to get out of their way when the lights turned green, how he often didn't receive any payment. How he endangered his life (and to be honest, the life of others) by standing out on the street in traffic. How some drivers heartlessly drove away after he had put in some extra work cleaning bird poo on their window shields.

Life was tough for Annoying Man. True, I am pretty sure he does not pay any taxes from this "job" but at least he was working, wasn't he? And drivers with thoroughly dirty window shields were benefitting from this.

After a while, someone from a car offered Annoying Man a cigarette in return for his service and he took a break off to smoke it.

Watching Annoying Man at work taught me a few things...you never really know how tough it is for someone until you walk in their shoes. And we never can assume why people do the things they do until they share that with us.

I won't struggle so much about being Mr Scrooge now. I think I'll just hand over some money.

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen...to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter- when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?" Isaiah 58:6-7.