Sign of the Times

He sat there, legs crossed with a terrible, numbing chill seeping up his body. Wedged into the crux where the sidewalk and building intersected, he was maintaining just enough body heat to keep from visibly trembling. It was common knowledge that the Number One Rule in real estate was "Location, Location, Location," but this wasn't quite the case for him because he was hunkered down in the midst of a very fine zip code and it wasn't helping him. He sighed and mused to himself that there were probably different rules for different things.

The wind whipped around him in spurts as the sky reminded him that there would be no warmth coming from its direction. The leaves had all but abandoned their trees with the exception of a few stragglers that simply didn't want their time to end. Everybody's time eventually ends. The traffic slowed, sped up, stopped, and restarted in rhythmic patterns that were easily observed from his vantage point. The whole experience was nearly as predictable as the patterns of human behavior from the foot-traffic on the sidewalk: eyes cast downward, purses and bags clutched tightly, speed increased, then a sigh of relief once the person had passed him.

His tattered wool gloves grasped the sign he held in his lap. It was constructed from sturdy cardboard and the block letters were neatly arranged and easy to read from a fair distance away. The only thing more interesting than the signs held by the homeless are the messages broadcast from church marquees and often both boast the same forlorn message of hope in the midst of desperation. Both are used to make the passer-byer reexamine their beliefs and consider a course of action that induces uncomfortablity. But this man's sign differed from those marquess. There was no cup to passive-aggressively suggest that a donation should be dropped his way. There was no plea for a ticket or passage to the next area code. He wasn't a veteran and he hadn't run out of gas. His sign reached further than an individual request and it simply said:

KEEP YOUR COINS.
I WANT CHANGE.