Scene opens to reveal A homeless man in tattered clothes, loudly playing the bongos against walls of buildings. An angry woman emerges from the building.
Woman: Do you mind? Some of us are actually trying to make a living. Why don’t you find another street-corner to live on, where you won’t be disrupting hard-working professionals.
Man: Do you mind? I am also trying to make a living. (Holds up a sign that says ‘will play for food’)
Woman: Hmph! Playing a children’s toy on a Manhattan street corner is hardly ‘making a living’. What’d you do . . . drop out of school, turn to drugs and alcohol . . .
Man: Actually, I graduated and worked on wall street. But I was laid off, lost a lot of money in the stock market, lost house and my family, and here we are. Now I play music and write poetry. But I never had a passion for finance. This is what I love . . . you know?
Woman: I find it hard to believe that anyone would give up a life like that for this.
Man: Let me correct you . . . I did not choose to give up my former lifestyle, it was taken from me. What I chose, was to turn my life around in a way that makes me happy. Trying to get back into the business world, and working day and night in the rat race never made may happy. Why would I want to go back to that?
Woman: And sleeping on the streets makes you happy?
Man: That’s not the . . . best part of the experience . . . but it comes with the territory. Now tell me . . . If everything is so great in your world, then why do you seem so frazzled?
Woman: It’s just. . . the- the pressure’s beginning to get to me.
Man: (Sighs) Just listen.
Pulls out a stack of napkins from his pocket and begins reading . . .
Homeless, vagrant, hobo, vagabond
These names can bruise even the thickest skin
Professional, businessman, tycoon, mogul
These names set a standard that we all aspire to reach
How could one person manage to be all of these things?
Or have been at one point
Individualist, free spirit, maverick, rebel
These names describe the person who fits all molds
No matter what words describe us, we all work for food
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