I don't know, i thougth it was funny.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Meant to post this a couple of days ago, but life intrudes occasionally.

So I'm on the subway in Toronto, on Friday afternoon. It's a little busy but not crunched, and I hear near the front of the car a guy asking if anyone can spare some change. "Just so I can get something to eat", well this continues for a few minutes and you can tell he is getting closer and closer to me, typically I give loonies and tooonies out to the homeless, but not typically to guys on the subway, I prefer my begging done in a more intimate setting. One on one on the streets.
So I'm sitting there (yes I was sitting, though others were standing,not proud of it but there you are) wondering how to answer, whether to make eye contact, all those things that run through your mind when you approach or are approached by, a street person. When he comes into view, I almost burst out laughing, His hair was standing on end, he had this crazed look in his eye, and he had the most ridiculously dirty clothes I could imagine. He looked like he had just climbed into a schizophrenic homeless costume, from Walmart.
I didn't give him anything and he carried on down the car.....I could here him the whole way, his patter never varying, his tone not altering, just droning on down the car.
About that time, I became aware that two Mormon missionaries had entered, you can always identify Church of the Latter Day Saints missionaries, they always wear suits, they are young and they have these big honking black plastic name tags on identifying themselves as Elder_____.
Well they caught my eye, cause one of them was talking,in a thick American accent to someone sitting near at hand to where he was standing. -have you ever spoken to a missionary before?
Do you know anything about the Church of the Latter Day Saints?- He didn't seem to be getting anywhere, but his partner caught my eye, he was oriental, his name tag Identified him as Elder
Anderson, and he had chinese script beneath to translate (i guess), it struck me that probably, whatever was written below probably didn't mean Anderson. oh well.
So I'm kinda watching the missionaries, listening to the homeless guy, who by now has realized that many people are now different from the ones he first approached, so he is obviously making his way back up to my end of the train. The Accented missionary continues to try to engage someone in discussion about Mormon, stopping people lined up to get off at next station, approaching sitting people, calling people brother, sister, always asking if they had ever spoken to a missionary. The homeless guy passes me by and finallly gets off, again I am stuck by the meticulous disarray of his garb, the well thought out jumble of hair, he kinda made me laugh.
Just then, a young man in one of those huge South Pole down jackets gets up, I assume that he has heard a lot of the interplay between this missionary and other passengers, don't know but I kinda hope. Elder____ approaches as the other nears the door, between stations. "Hi, have you ever spoken to a missionary, do you know about our church, would you llike to hear more about Mormon?" "Who's Norman?" As the door opens and my new hero exits onto the platform. A good five seats either side of this interchange burst into laughter, and the smiles of good cheer lasted till i reached my stop, two stations later.