stop. take a deep breath. realize that any child “too young” to read those words probably heard worse in the three hours of television she watched today [1].

tonight, as joey and i were taking trash out to the dumpster at jimmy john’s, we stumbled upon a man rummaging around in the trash. the dumpster we use is in a small area that is walled off with four other dumpsters and the whole area is kept locked. (why, you ask? that’s a whole ‘nother entry). i asked if he’d like some fresh bread that we had just bagged up, but he said he wasn’t really looking for carbohydrates. i let him know that we were going to have to lock up the area eventually, but he was free to do whatever until then.

about 20 minutes later when it was time to head out, i walked back into the dumpster area and offered my sandwich. he refused, despite my persistent attempts (although, in hindsight, i guess i wasn’t persistent enough, eh?). eventually we started talking about why the dumpsters were even locked up in the first place (see above) and what happened to the trash compactor that used to keep that area so clean. during the conversation i asked the fellow what his name was. he dejectedly responded, “you can just call me zeropussyloserboy.”

our conversation continued for a few more moments and eventually i biked away, but i was struck. it would appear that some series of events has led to this man becoming so disappointed and hopeless, that he would rather me know him as zeropussyloserboy than by his real name.

[blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.]
matthew 5.3