Flotsam and jetsam (2)

ST, May 17 (2004)

Munich. A gnome-looking, aging, homeless man boards the tram at Wettersteinplatz. Long greasy hair and beard, thinning and partly graying, thick clothes on in the heat or the cold, bundled in a filthy raincoat where stains and smells accumulate. His look is tender and affectionate, revealing a good-hearted soul behind. His belongings, which are scarce, are part of his shadow. The tram seems his home, the tram network his neighbourhood, the only places where our eyes have met, where our bodies have occupied symmetric spaces of the same bench.

There is a second homeless man, younger than the first, whose belongings are more abundant - a few tattered suitcases stuffed with almost overflowing contents, their weight pulling him firmly towards the ground. His appearance is less worn out than that of the previous one, as if he were still a sophomore in the homeless wasteland: short hair, shaved face, fine clothes (fine suit) where scattered pools of stains and clouds of dirt can barely be discerned from a yet unaffected background. His distress, however, is more pronounced, the look in his eyes less truthful, snakier, less resigned, his ill-fate more disturbing, his fear authentic (fear which lacks in the poise of the older one), his concerns for his lost life almost visible in his actions, in his clumsy movements, in his suspicious, defensive attitude.

They both belong to the same stigmatised class, they sure have both a past, an explanation, a story to tell, a roadmap to disgrace, yet they are different entities, divided by a hazy quality difficult to describe but which resides in the former and has neglected the latter - dignity.