I was on the Red Line the other day and heard a guy get on. I couldn't see him but he was talking very loudly and no one seemed to be answering him. He'd say things like, "Well yeah, well yeah, well yeah. Don't ya know? Don't ya know?" Over and over. Probably talking to the voices in his head. And then he'd hum. And it was all pretty loud and annoying but he had that kind of voice where you didn't want to turn around to look. I just knew he was going to be a little, dirty homeless guy with a scruffy beard and grimy clothes and three gray teeth.
At some point he wandered up the aisle, still talking, and stood where I could see him. I was right about the clothes, they were filthy, but
he was about 6'2" and thin and could have been a GQ model. Well, if his gray hair was washed and cut and styled and he wore nice clothes and wasn't so drunk he couldn't keep his eyes open. But even through all that he was extraordinarily handsome. Picture Pierce Brosnan as a homeless man.
It made me wonder, do we expect more of good-looking people? Do we automatically think good-looking people are smarter and more successful? It's hard to imagine how someone that good-looking could be homeless. I don't know why.
Is there a correlation between attractiveness and accomplishment? Are handsomeness and homelessness mutually exclusive?
I have a friend (very attractive) who has a fear of losing everything and becoming a homeless person who lives on lower Wacker Drive in a cardboard box. And it's a real fear to her. (My real fear around that would be not having a place to plug in my blow-dryer.)
Surely we all have friends or family who would take us in if we lost everything. Don't we? But then, doesn't Mr. GC handsome homeless man?
I guess I shouldn't count on my looks keeping me out of a cardboard box, huh?
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