"You can't live like that"

On one Monday, no different from Tuesdays and other working days of the week, after doing the usual preparatory and hygienic procedures in the morning, I took my hardtail bicycle out of the apartment and went to work, or rather to one of my jobs. Getting around the city by bike everywhere and always is my thing. Although I am far from young. Sometimes I meet puzzled looks - what is normal in Europe, is still a new thing in our Siberian province.

Well, so, I’m spinning my pedals and conducting a mental dialogue with myself. So what are you missing? Why, to put it in pompous poetic language, does the soul languish? Although you are not luxurious, you are not hungry. You have a place to live. At the very least you somehow make a living. Maybe all this “impatience of the heart” is a whim? Not immediately finding the right answer, I look around. Although there is nothing to look out for, the route is familiar and I don’t expect to see anything new. Here, in the usual place, where the heating main goes outside, three homeless people are sitting, stiff and shriveled after the night. They spend the night somewhere nearby. I have no idea how they survive in winter. Is it normal that a person is forced to lead an existence worse than that of a dog? Probably everyone, every first one, will answer no. But the fact remains a fact, as if this is a natural given, lying beyond the limits of human will. The fact that many of the fallen people are themselves to blame for what happened, I believe, is not an argument for remaining indifferent to their fate. And then, somewhere in the depths of my consciousness, the answer to my own question ripened. One of the reasons for my “languishing” is that little depends on me. I cannot influence the surrounding reality in any way. Fast and efficient. Neither big nor small. In this case, with these unfortunate people. How nice it would be if the same social mechanisms were organized sensibly and humanely. I saw, for example, such nonsense for the civilized 21st century, I quickly went to the district social service. And there all eyes were on me, as if they were just waiting for my visit. I say this and that, it’s a mess. And in response to me. This moment, we’ll go out, find out what the root of the evil is, and offer help. Don't worry, thanks for the signal. It would seem that nothing could be simpler. But it is easier to imagine a trip to Mars than such a picture, natural for a normal society.