{"id":7153,"date":"2021-07-06T07:17:03","date_gmt":"2021-07-06T14:17:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/?p=7153"},"modified":"2021-07-06T07:17:04","modified_gmt":"2021-07-06T14:17:04","slug":"a-homeless-man-reads-ivanhoe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/meditations\/a-homeless-man-reads-ivanhoe\/","title":{"rendered":"A Homeless Man Reads Ivanhoe"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-7153\" data-postid=\"7153\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-7153 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    <\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->\n\n\n<p>I took a walk. It was 85 degrees. I saw a homeless man sitting on the sidewalk near a convenience store. How do I know he was homeless? I know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He was a regular at this spot and we&#8217;d engaged in book chat several times. Virtually every time I encountered him, he was reading novels and drinking malt liquor. Sometimes he harangued crows that harangued him back. He always has a friendly disposition and keeps his space clean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The book was hardback, big and blue. Old. Very old. No title. It was frayed around the edges. It had spots. I stopped near the man. I asked him what he was reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c<em>Ivanhoe<\/em>,\u201d he said, \u201cSir Walter Scott.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I said I&#8217;d never read it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s a little slow,\u201d he said. \u201cBut great.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWriting was so different then,\u201d I said. \u201cMore ornate. There was nothing else to do. Why not describe everything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He ran me through the list of characters, Ivanhoe, King Richard, Robert of Locksley, Prince John, and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I asked him where he found such an old book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He told me he dug it out of the recycle barrel of a nearby bookstore. He&#8217;d saved it from death. In his hands, <em>Ivanhoe<\/em> still lived. He said when he was finished, it was going into a street library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Note to self: carry a classic novel in your pocket on all your works. You&#8217;ve got an extra copy of <em>Sometimes a Great Notion<\/em>, the greatest rain novel ever written. It&#8217;s perfect for 100 degree days.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I took a walk. It was 85 degrees. I saw a homeless man sitting on the sidewalk near a convenience store. How do I know he was homeless? I know. He was a regular at this spot and we&#8217;d engaged in book chat several times. Virtually every time I encountered him, he was reading novels [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7154,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7153"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7156,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7153\/revisions\/7156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}