Pink polluted skies, rancid streets, wayward dreamers and their dreams: the epitome of Los Angeles — a broken, bleeding heart somehow still beating, the second largest city in the USA, the home of the rich and famous, a superficial landscape superimposed onto the remnants of misfortune — known simply as L.A.

 

The truth is difficult to ignore, even when you spend most of the time in the gentrified side of the city where things seem much better, blocks away from the unfortunate horror aptly named the homeless epidemic.

​

Your Destination Is On The Right

​

Arriving in the city is the easiest part of the voyage; finding a spot to park is the real challenge. Unlike more adept city-dwellers, you can opt to pay for parking. It costs a solid twenty bucks, and it will save you a painful, stress-induced migraine.

 

What awaits is a night buzzing like a firefly from eclectic restaurants to niche bars and colorful clubs underneath neon city lights, swapping socials with new friends and exchanging smiles with beautiful strangers only to head-shakingly regret not simply saying hello.

 

But much like a firefly, you will soon find yourself captured by the truth, trapped by the reality of the city. 

​

Spare Some Change

​

There’s a luxury to being in a position to complain about the melancholic nature of the world while doing nothing to improve it. In the end, ignoring terrible things becomes easier when you are not constantly reminded of those terrible things. 

 

But in L.A., no matter how you re-design it, re-build it, re-paint it, re-brand it, and ultimately gentrify it, you will always be immersed by a simple truth: individuals who are homeless experience so much discomfort and pain while others simply walk by them with nothing but disdain or sadness to offer. 

 

It must be the combination of sadness, guilt, and a sense of responsibility that compels people to want to help individuals in need. However, the fact that anything you have to offer will never be enough is disheartening, discouraging, and a truth difficult to swallow.

 

But you do what you can. Because it’s better to do something, anything at all, no matter how small, than nothing at all.

​

Dos Por Favor (Two, Please) 

​

Ultimately, the most human act, whether a response to guilt or from a desire to help, is to provide compassion to one another. With one act, you can make someone’s day just a little bit easier, a little more pleasant.

​

Parked outside of frequently visited venues, bars, and clubs are food carts and trucks serving fresh hot dogs, tacos, and other popular greasy-feel-good foods. A few feet away, you will undoubtedly find an individual who is in need. Although you may not be able to offer them shelter or money, you can offer them one meal, one conversation, one simple embrace, compassion, and an acknowledgment of existence. 

 

At the end of the night, it’s just one soul feeding another.