Were you offended by his dress?
---> full circle
Actually, no. He had some BO, and probably should've brushed his teeth. He did comb out his slightly curly long red hair sometimes, but the beard was a definite turn-off. I had a grilfriend and wasn't interested, that's all. And I was pretty sure Jesus wasn't interested either.
I got a comment on the story "Man I wish this story was true". I almost replied to say "Man I wish it wasn't".
My girlfriend sorta felt sorry for him, and tried to be nice to him. Best girlfriend I ever had, until we compared our genealogical books and found out we're related five different ways. No wonder she could laugh at my jokes. She married a musician who plays for the Utah Symphony, and I could get her to corroborate the story. It was a very icy night out trying to get up the hill to the UUMC, and she came along, to help push if I got stuck somehow. . . . . . er. . . . well. . . . I guess to drive in case I needed to push.
The last I heard of him, he was living in an old VW van in the Idaho woods, somewhere near Salmon. Still talking about how Jesus is coming soon.
But it wouldn't really be true, entirely, if I said I wished my story wasn't true. He was just as happy with his life as I was with mine, and I don't think he got into half as much trouble since then, as I have. He was always able to eat without working, by walking that delicate line with the welfare/psychiatric folks where he could be certified as being unable to work and deemed harmless and able to care for himself, and deserving of government funds. And from the judicious and frugal ways I saw, he probably has a lot more gold than that nose ring nowadays.
In fact, now that I've been thinking about it again, I think this gives me a deeper faith in mankind, just knowing that no matter how "professionalized" our government managers can be, there's still going be some possibilites for some very creative souls to live in perfect freedom.