I usually train clients early in the morning, my two morning training sessions were cancelled. Being up bright and early 6:30 am to be exact, I felt motivated to hit the gym for myself rather then return to bed. I live about a mile away from the gym and walk from my home to the gym; this usually in the afternoon when I am finished working with my clients. But today, here I was on the streets of West Hollywood trekking up the hill leading to Santa Monica Boulevard almost alone sans car traffic and very few pedestrians. Sometimes this early in the morning you forget that LA is such a large city as peace and quiet, a bright blue sky and the noise is that of the birds is all you see and hear. However, when the busy streets of WEHO are empty and the passerby's are few and far between the people who sometimes lurk in the shadows or are never seen populate the streets; or at least are more evident.
Walking up La Cienega hill I heard what I supposed to be was a car engine in dire trouble of breaking down. Arriving closer to what I thought was an engine backfiring was instead a man sitting without shoes, in a white tank top next to bags of half eaten food trying to catch his breath. He rocked back and forth with each exhale and seemed to shiver as he inhaled. He was across the street from me but his gyrations and heaving sounds were easily seen and heard from that distance. A woman approached him I suppose asking him if he needed help but his body would not rest long enough for an answer. She took out her phone and called 911. She looked at me and said she could handle this.
I got to the peak of the hill, a very busy intersection where two major streets meet. Even though this is Christmas Eve Day traffic was still flowing, slower but steady. Thank God it was slower then usually. A very heavy woman with one foot wrapped in a dirty bandage, sitting in a wheel chair way too small for her very large frame. She is a regular in WEHO, very disheveled, hair matted always carrying a few plastic bags on her lap and always with her right foot bandaged in a sloppy, messy, filthy piece of gauze. She is usually on the sidewalk asking for donations but this time she was dead center in the middle of the intersection stopped. Usually quiet, today this lady was screaming, not necessarily at the cars stopped at each intersection but to someone with which she saw and did not like. I started to walk toward her to at least help her move her wheelchair (touching her chair is taboo for her), when a traffic meter person ran to her. The woman in the wheelchair screamed a few profanities, but the traffic person paid little attention and pushed the lady and her chair to the side of the road. The traffic meter person took out her walkie talkie and I assume called for assistance.
I walked a few feet almost at my destination when I noticed a man lying on the sidewalk. His head was tucked neatly on a stoop of a building, his feet straight out facing the street. He had a cigarette, unlit, lying on his chest, with a book of matches in his left hand which was facing the sky showing his palm. He was snoring very loudly and as I watched him the cigarette was doing a semi dance bouncing all over his chest and stomach but not falling to the ground. Next to this man was a semi wet puddle just around the area of his crotch. I stopped not sure of what to do and sadly did nothing but let him sleep.
I went to the gym with a whole lot less motivation and wondered about the three people I saw and paid little attention to the cardio equipment and weights. I was jarred out of my thoughts by two men who were all frayed because Christmas shopping is tedious and trying. A third man entered the gym floor speaking loudly on his phone and apparently was telling a friend not to go to a Christmas party because he (the man on the phone had been snubbed). Two women were pissed because they just found out that an unexpected guest was arriving for Christmas dinner and now they had to buy her a gift. having heard enough of these first world problems i decided to cut my work out session and needed to head home.
I am not sure what to make of today. There is reality then there is the reality in which we live. Life is tough and then for some life is miserable. It is Christmas Eve day, the day before an event of beauty, hope and promise supposedly happened. I am Jewish but I love to see the joy in the eyes of my friends who celebrate the birth of Christ. I listen intently as they describe the meaning of this day. I hear the Christmas carols, see the decorations even send my cards for the season. But today, I was taken aback, trying very hard to understand what this day means and how it can mean so many different things to so many different people. If there is a war on Christmas, I think for a brief moment I was walking in the battlefield.
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