PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

~~Confession of a Scoundrel~ 

I was forty five years old and staying in my sister's basement in the Seattle area when I hooked up with a day-labor outfit. "Work today. Paid today." was their slogan. I didn't own a vehicle, so I was given a ride in the day-labor van and dropped off at the end of a highway exit ramp near a strip mall. They gave me a sign attached to a long board, and a thin, black, plastic, poncho. The sign promoted a furniture store clearance sale. I was to stand on the side of the road and wave the sign at  approaching traffic. There was a lot of it. It was three days before Christmas. Cold and rainy. 

So, there I stood. A vision of utter failure at the bottom of an off-ramp holding a sign in the rain for all commuters and shoppers to see. After a few minutes one of them waved at me as he drove by. I waved back. Then it dawned on me that a lot of these people probably feel like failures, too. Never grabbed the rung up where they had hopes and dreams for. Doing what they felt they had to in order to survive. They just earned more money than I did and paid more bills. I decided to love them. After all--it was Christmas time.

I vowed to myself I would, for about eight hours at least, be the best sign-waver in the great northwest and began waving the sign with enthusiasm. It was at that moment I also decided to smile, and burst into song while looking the drivers in the eye. No one could hear me no matter how loud I sang, so I let it all out. I was actually having fun. I felt good in spite of me, the cold, the rain. 

More and more drivers smiled and waved as they drove by. I smiled and waved back in a genuinely pleasant and friendly fashion as I continued to sing and sing and wave that sign. I imagined the people were saying to themselves "Gosh. I don't have it so bad. I'm going to cheer-up for me, my family, friends, and all humanity." I began to feel Christ-like in my own scoundrel kind of way. "Work today. Paid today."