Shanghai.
Happy. Joyful.
A beggar. A poor man in the street.
Does he know what the sign behind him says?
Has he positioned himself there for effect?
That's a mean thought, even if just a question.
Is it one of those coincidences of a modern city with its sever contrasts?
His life has most likely been very hard.
Who knows what he might have lost.
Whether it was a fortune or a child or a promising career.
Once he was a young man with ideals and many thoughts about the future.
A better future.
That was when he had friends and would spend the afternoons in tea houses
in hidden alleys secretly plotting a new China.
A China more like the west. Like America.
Where people where free to do what they desired.
To have more than one child.
A car.
To become rich enough to dress in nice clothes and travel to Paris in the spring.
It didn't got he way he had hoped for.
things went wrong.
Time passed. He grew older. Nobody wants him. Nobody cares.
He cares only for the next meal he can afford. Or the next beer. I don;t know what he cares for.
Maybe he doesn't even drink beer.
I'm ashamed to say I didn't do anything to help him.
And now it's Thanksgiving.
I am grateful for another year with bread on the table.
I'm praying I will be able to share another Thanksgiving with my children, my family, with friends.
I wish everyone could.
I wonder if he's still there?
What does he wish for?
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