Conversations with Bruce

A couple of weeks ago, we invited our favorite "homeless" man to join us for coffee at Starbucks. We've seen Bruce around town for a couple of years and always like how he kept to himself, never asked for anything and was genuinely friendly. In all the years of seeing Bruce, we've never really had an opportunity to say more than a couple words to him. So we took this opportunity to have him join us for coffee for a couple of minutes. A couple minutes turned into a two and a half hour conversation. As it turns out, he is no longer homeless, but rents a basement suite off of Maclure Road. He seems to work as some sort of ESL teacher for a nurse from Bosnia. He has travelled a lot in his days, all across Canada. He is originally from Toronto, loves chess, literature and the arts. It surprised us to find out how educated he is. Perhaps our own bias and preconceived notions were put to the test, and our judgements were thrown out the window. There was more to this man than met the eye. We enjoyed a wide range of stories, involving politics, geography, history, travel, literature and a few musical performances. We also discovered a kindred spirit in our love for walking. Bruce enjoys walking everywhere because he can see things that you don't see while driving or even biking. Walking also gave him inspiration for his artwork. For the price of a large tea, we got more than we bargained for. It was a pleasant evening filled with laughter, story telling and learning that there is more to someone than meets the eye.