Landmark change in conciousness

Ken - A people watcher with No Fixed Abode

Last Tuesday (16th) I was out working on my current project.  I filmed this chap above.  He's called Ken and he is homeless.  During the interview he was drinking from a bottle of cheap cider with haste and talking about some filthy subjects.  It was rather entertaining listening to the old boy ramble on in his up-beat Scottish accent.  Toward the end of the shoot as I packed away my camera he noticed it was a Praktica and commented.  He began telling me how he used to have a Canon A1 and it dawned on me how easily I had forgotten that homeless alcoholics had a different life before they were homeless alcoholics.

Several days later after telling people about my entertaining filming experience with Ken the moment had almost completely left my conciousness.  Until Friday morning as I sat in traffic along Station Road.  I noticed a crowd of concerned people around the public toilet, on the bench infront of the toilet was a large hiking bag with a bed-roll attached.  Whereas I would normally have dismissed the moment, writing off the onlookers as blood-lusting rubber-neckers and the victim as another dead zooner not worthy of a second thought, I instead thought, "Oh shit, I hope it's not Ken" and that was the moment it hit me!  I had just had a landmark change in conciousness.  For the first time in my life a homeless person had moved out of the realm of being a public object and into the category of being a member of the community, that is to say my community; the people I chose to recognise.