old man, a call to the truth

I saw a man a few days ago. He was sitting in front of me in the tram.
I was going home and wondered where we was going to.

His shoes were old and had holes in them. He had lots of sheets of paper in his hand and a tiny old yellow plastic bag. He hadn't shaved for a few days and he had no teeth.
He did not smell and he wasn't loud.
He just sat there and looked as normal as anybody else.

He took a bottle of a fruit smoothie out of his pocket.
It's a brand I already bought once.
I looked at the bottle as the man tried to open it. I noticed the color of the smoothie. It was brown. Almost like chocolate.

I knew the brand. The brand makes fruit smoothies: banana, mango, strawberry, the usual flavors. They don't make chocolate smoothies.
He must have been drinking something really old that had been thrown away. Something he must have found in the garbage of a supermarket. All big supermarkets throw away the food they did not sell.
I felt sad.
Just about everyday in my life, I complain to myself how little money I have in comparison to others, how people buy themselves nice things and expensive things.
And how I don't.

I wish I'd remember the man on the tram every time I complain about money.
Source of this image: morguefile