Day 182: December 3rd 2009. The Lost Soul

Toben was supposed to get a bike this morning. He was excited all week for it.

"Yup, I can't wait to get me a bike t'murrah!" in his light Louisiana accent.

He met another homeless man who worked up enough money to get to Seattle. He offered his bike up to Toben. So instead of taking a walk over to G street pier, where we usually go first thing in the morning to catch the first rays of the sun, we headed over to where they would meet. They were scheduled to meet at 9:30am by the first wooden benches north of the Maritime Museum. The weather was real miserable, cloudy skies, chilly air. Regardless of the weather though, there was a homeless man who walked the harbor up and down all day long. It was like he was a programed robot. At 630 he would be walking past the Coast Guard base. At 710 he was walking by the Star of India. He would walk the length of the harbor from about the airport to the Midway never speaking to anybody or even making eye contact with anybody, carrying an army napsack over his shoulder. He was one of the first people I started recognizing here when I arrived. So I asked Toben that morning


"Man, I wonder what that guy is thinking all the time. I keep seeing him doing the same thing everyday" and without a pause or any hesitation Toben responded like he had the one and only answer.
" He's a lost soul, destined to walk until he finds his purpose and does good on this earth before he can depart. He's stuck here, kind of like a ghost"

A lost soul. Man I hope Im not a lost soul.