Leather pants in the summer… Luke. I drove past him in Deep Ellum, and forgot that I had been in a crunch for time. I meant to be somewhere by 1pm, but Luke, with his artistic disposition, here amongst the graffiti, stole my attention.

I had nothing to give him, or even a lighter to let him borrow, yet he was so generous. After I had bothered him for a picture and figured I should leave him be, he offered me a place to sit and “chill for a while”. He told me bits of his journey; present, past and future. We talked about drugs, dumpster diving and bucket lists. He gifted me a piece of cardboard, adorned with his own art. “Put this in your window… If I’m ever breaking in cars for change, I’ll know to pass yours up.”

Several people walked by, whom he asked for change. None of them stopped. Briefly, we traded ideas about why they hadn’t. We proposed reasons like fear & not giving a damn. I didn’t say it, but I wondered if it was because I was sitting there. Whatever the etiology, passers by were unmoved by Luke’s colorful signage and destination goals. Not me. I wondered about the words on his cardboard solicitation. “MegaBUS me home PLEASE”

Home? Come to find out, Austin was the goal. But, he knew no one there.. had no family there…just a calling. Then why should he call it home? The cliche goes, “home is where the heart is,” and after much curious digging, I concluded that his heart was in the journey. He had been many places before; living off the land so to speak. Enough to offer me geographical comparisons of the panhandling life. Some places, people were likely to stop and share what they had… other places, so saturated with homelessness that the chances were significantly thinned.

Two cosmopolites. Strangers. At home, if but for a moment, on a dusty Dallas stoop. Ships passing in broad day, drifting our own several paths. I headed back to my car and on to my commitments. I haven’t seen Luke anymore on the stoop, maybe he made it to Austin. Wherever the journey finds him, I imagine that he is home. Cool dude in my book.