Couple on 36th Street

I have worked in mid-town Manhattan for the past five years , always within the same 10 block radius. Just about everyday, I pass the couple that lives on 36th Street. Literally on the corner of 36th Street. They’re a young couple. The woman can’t be out her 20’s, small framed with medium length blond hair. The guy has dark black longish hair with a beard and moustache who if seen on the subway could be easily mistaken for a hippy educated type. A German Shepard always accompanies them and more than often lies next to them motionless, under a thick blanket. A frosty or wintry day doesn’t go by without my thinking about them. Sometimes I find myself awake at 2 am on a frigid night, wondering how the hell they are surviving on a NYC corner with only a couple of worn jackets and a few tattered blankets. I worry about the dog- , thinking it must be freezing, and then justifying the breed, tell myself German Sheppards are made to survive severe weather conditions. Everyday, a thousand or more people will walk right by them (me being one of them), and many of them will say “They’re young – they should get a job”, or some other equally rude and pointless comment. I can’t imagine that anyone would intentionally choose to spend their lives on the streets and I doubt the intelligence of these so called intellectual folk in $1000 suits and $300 shoes as they dash back and forth across 5th Avenue to make the next meeting or seal the next big deal. This couple reminds me a line in a REM song, “Not everyone can carry the weight of the world”. It’s now 11:33 pm Monday night and I’m still thinking the same thing- how is this couple doing, how lucky I am, and how is the dog?