"I should have lived at another time."

This morning I woke to sunbeams breaking through fog. I threw on some jeans and a jacket and raced out, hoping to get some cityscapes with fog and light. And I did. Then I met this young man with his grocery cart full of bottles, on his way to the recycling center where he could get a few cents for each bottle. We smiled shyly at each other, and I said, "Beautiful morning. Fog and sun at the same time."

"Yeah. I like this part of town. It used to be industrial. I think there must have been lots of jobs here at one time. Now it's just rich people's condos, shit like that. There's no jobs."

I asked him what he'd like to do, if he could find a job.

"I'd like to be an artist's model. But not in our time. Those old artists, Michelangelo and people like him. I'd like to be one of their models. I should have lived at another time."

I looked at him, really looked, and realized how incredibly beautiful he is. He's right. He'd look right at home in a Michelangelo painting. I asked if he'd mind being my model, if it would be OK if I took a picture with the foggy city in the background. He laughed, sure.

Last week Ceridwen sent me a link to Recovery College, a free university for street people in the UK. It turns out there's a program that sounds similar right here in Portland: Dorothy Day School, associated with Sisters of the Road. When my old friend Frank was here last week, he was reading a biography of Dorothy Day, so it sort of felt like an omen. I've signed up for a volunteer training this afternoon at Sisters of the Road. Maybe I'll run into this beautiful young man again. We didn't exchange names, but this is a face I won't soon forget.

Edit later in the day: The volunteer workshop was cancelled. A death in the family of the presenter. Next one scheduled is March 11. I'll try again. I posted a few more pictures of this young man here.