Tuesday, September 16, 2008

The Prostitute Who Hears Priest's Confessions

This is a short post. Listening to "Gold Digger" by Kanye West, who is in D.C. to give a performance I guess, pretty soon. It's the first time he'll be here, but he was born in Maryland. That's according to a manager who is putting on the show, or manages him or something, whom I spoke with briefly (no names).

I found out where some good hip hop is on Saturdays too. Didn't go last Saturday, but was tipped off to a place I'll try out soon. Where people really dance and feel the music to feeeel it. None of this standing around and sitting around, trying to hook up. These people, I hear, want to dance. Sounds good to me. I need some real music lovers, not just scene lovers. I think this is the key thing I'm looking for. And there's a place for the cocktails and mingling, but for everything a time and a place, a season for everything under the sun.

I'm realizing, listening to Kanye's song, I start typing to the beat. Haha!

I wanted to post this about a woman whom I met a few days ago, a prostitute who just got her first computer.

She came into a place where I was sitting at the bar just talking and having something to eat. She wanted change and some water or something. She said something witty and despite her appearance, and a sort of cheap flamboyance, I could tell this woman wasn't unintelligent. She seemed pretty smart to me, actually. So I was intrigued and asked her to sit down. She was black (which I mention because the woman who wanted her to leave sometimes says sort of racist things) and had lots of flashy jewelry on and I'm not sure if she had all her teeth or not, but I think so. Anyway, this woman had rough language but she was smart and she was talking about Obama and how she had hope for the first time in her life, that maybe he could help make things better for her people. For her, personally. She said she's had a number of jobs, and she recommended NOT going into nursing. She rattled off a list of jobs including prostitute, and then said she just got her first computer and she loved it and the next thing she wanted to do was get a job in the computer industry. Something to do with IT, she said. I thought this was so cool and said so. This was a woman you could tell was very bright, but had some rough things to deal with growing up and was really dealt a difficult stack of cards.

Then she started talking about how she goes to church, and spends at least 2 hours in prayer everyday, praying for everybody she can think of. She said she's Roman Catholic. Come to think of it, I met this Catholic priest after speaking with her, but I don't think this is the priest she goes to. I just thought it was interesting how she's praying for all these people everyday, and yet people probably, usually, look down on her. She told me she was talking to her priest, and that he started talking to HER, and telling her about all of his troubles and his life.

She wished me blessings, and said she knew God was going to bless me, and then she left, afterwhich I was chastised for inviting "that kind of person" to sit down. "We don't want people like that here", and how she was homeless, off the street, and other things. The first thing that came to my mind was that Jesus would have sat down with her so why shouldn't we? but then again, not everyone is interested in turning their bar into a charity of sorts I suppose.

She had something to bring to the table though.

She really did.

And I hope she gets a good job in the computer industry, and is able to continue giving priests her ear.

No comments:

Post a Comment