Smiley: A Legend on the Street

And here we have Smiley.

If there is a truly holy man that I know of on the streets of Austin, Smiley would be the one I'd nominate and vote for.

He's a giver, a sharer, one who looks out more for the other person oftentimes than for himself.

And I just realized that I know so little of his personal history, what brought him to the street, his hopes, dreams.  So this is just the very beginning of a post about Smiley which I will add to in the days to come as I learn more about what moves him about the mean and not-so-mean streets of Austin.

Here he holds his sign, his mendicant-monk sign.  He asks for so little.  Fifty cents.  And his sign says so much about him and what he believes.  He does believe in karma.  He does know that it comes back to you.

Guess that's why we all care about him so much.

I consider him to be one of my teachers here in Austin.  Mahalo, Smiley.  You da real deal, dawg.