Me so TALKY. Me talky you long time

March 16, 2012:  A decently dressed 72 year old man, who was walking past the park bench I was occupying this afternoon, stopped and asked if he could sit and eat his lunch.  Since the bench was as big as a stretched limousine and doesn’t belong to me, it would have been hard to say, no - though I did turn my body in the other direction to not encourage conversation.

Not even 2 minute later, he started to talk to me.  At first, I thought that he might be a lonely man needing conversation, so I didn’t stop him.  My mind was preoccupied; therefore I gave him 40% of my attention with 1 - 3 word answers if a response was needed.  Then it happen…he started to heavily quote the parts of the Bible that talks about giving to others, as I could clearly seeing where he was going with the conversation.

After 30 minutes, when the older man finally finished his sales pitch, he asked me for $20 USD.  When I didn’t give him anything (I get on average about 7 requests per hour) his true personality tore thru his mask as he stopped quoting the bible and cursed me with the whip of his careless tongue.  He stood up, angrily calling me a thief because I stole his knowledge and blessings without giving him anything – this was strange…I don’t recall ever inviting him to sit with me. 

This man is a good example of a social prostitute, on how he was using a skill such as quoting the Bible in an unworthy way for financially gains.  I feel I am pretty good at stopping conversations with a common prostitute, since it is usually obvious on what they do by their work clothes.  But, it is the social prostitute that is the hardest to stop, because “what if” you are wrong and they are just being friendly?  Anyhow, if I ever did decide to pay a social prostitute for their services, I would much prefer that they follow the dress code of a common prostitute with the typical over the knee pleather boots and an extremely short environmentally friendly skirt and top.