I used to walk through the plaza in pioneer square. There was a very large black man, (6 foot 6 inches tall, 260 lbs) that used to sit on the First street bench. He always had a world globe and other interesting paraphernalia gathered round him, and he had a sign with a bucket. He was a professional beggar with an apartment of his own and nice belongings. He wanted to date me…
One day as I was walking through the plaza handing out lunches and there was a bunch of younger guys, 20ish, sitting on the benches and I handed each of them a lunch. They had been smoking pot. As I handed a lunch to one of the guys a pigeon flew overhead and pooped on me. Yep. Pigeon poop. The guys all started hooting and laughing, tears rolling down their faces. There were two things I could have done…walk away indignantly or laugh with them. As I wiped the bird poop out of my hair, I began to laugh with them. That was the day I started to think of pigeons as rats…with wings…