"...it's a vicious cycle..."

A couple days ago I wrote about a Sunday, a really beautiful Sunday that made me feel warm and fuzzy about life. About humanity. But I guess God wanted to remind me of the yin/yang thing. The next Saturday, he showed me something not nearly as pleasant.

I really do love downtown Augusta. It's a retro 1950's style downtown with brick strips and blocks with little shops inside, and you can walk to everything. Old fashioned murals are on the sides of some of the buildings. It's fairly well maintained. Not touristy-fresh-n-clean, but just enough of an old and unkempt feeling to give it character. The music hall and news station is on the east side, the riverwalk to the north, and hey! there's a Mellow Mushroom and Blue Sky Kitchen! It's just great.

There's also a side of it that isn't as great. The projects aren't far away, and it's common to see drunks and druggies...or drunk druggies...congregating there, out under the bridge, on the walk, anywhere. Saturday found myself and my sisters (excluding Erin) hanging out downtown with Drew for, as Holly said, "beginning of the year pictures". We visited the abandoned rail tracks on the bridge, hit up the graffiti warehouse (where the hobos sleep...sort of creepy) , and lastly on a whim decided to pull into this run down and unused brick apartment complex. The first thing I noticed was a pile of stuff over near the wall, it seemed to be trash that somebody dumped. While Holly started taking pictures, Drew and I went to inspect the stuff. There were receipts everywhere, all sorts of cards, makeup, inexpensive jewelry, a picture, checkbook, and a purse thrown off to the side.
"It's....a girl's purse, Drew."
"She got mugged."
".....but what would any girl be doing back here? It's an empty lot with empty broken apartments."
--
"This happened last night, nothing is wet."
"So should we call 911? Wait, look, here's here picture....she's pretty..."
"We probably shouldn't touch anything, it's a crime scene. They'll find our fingerprints."
"I found the checkbook, though. It has her family's name on it. We can look them up, or turn it in."

Reality check right there. Bad things, they happen. Not too far from where we find ourselves either.

*September 18, 2008. 39th and Broad, walking with Holly*

The man mumbled under his breath. He passed the trashcan.
He took a step back, peering into it. He spoke a little louder, an explanation in case anyone was watching.
"Well, it's perfectly fine. It is, I just know it's perfectly fine. Plently left, it's fine. Yes, I think I'll just finish it off. It's fine, sure is it fine."
He reached in and pulled out a half-drunk soda cup. As he took a sip, he noticed me watching him. He blushed, and hurriedly mumbled "Oh yes, this is good. It's fine." and waved me off.

. . . . .

hmm.