Encouraged by a Homeless Person in Japan

 

 

In 1989, young theater people in Nagoya, including me, held a festival. We have held the festival every year for a while now. We built a theatrical tent in a park downtown. We performed various plays.

 In the tent, we put lighting and sound materials. We needed persons on night duty; a pair of theater persons did it on rotation. We took turns sleeping.

 One day, I was on night duty, and when I woke up, a homeless person came into the tent. My job was to keep outsiders out of the tent. But I enjoyed talking with him. He asked me a question.

“You are a participant in the festival. Is this profitable?”

I honestly answered.

“Not at all. Last year, we had a $60,000 deficit.”

He replied.

“OK. I see. Trust me. Now, I will go to a VIP. I will talk to the VIP about you. I will be back with tons of money that you have never seen!”

Then he went away from the tent.

I half-believed he was a big shot who was disguised as a homeless person. He would come back with tons of money the next morning. I dreamed all poor theater people could be rich.

 Actually, he never showed up to the tent, but I aspired for a positive future for a while.

 I assumed homeless people are jobless. But their job could be to make you dream, albeit briefly.

Picture by anis & rove illustrations (rove image design office)