by Royal Hopper

Often in the city of sin you will glance at someone sleeping on the sidewalk and let your glaze linger on their plight in the few seconds you have to spare before the light turns green and you forge onwards to the mortgage paying endeavor that occupies most of your week. In your mind you give him a name like “Fred” and every day as you think “oh there is Fred sleeping on the side walk again.” Then one day Fred is not there and he never reappears. Eventually you pick a new landmark to notice like say Johnny who sleeps on a different block until one day Johnny is not there sleeping in his usual spot and you don’t see him again. This happens again and again and again because it is human nature to notice things and then move on a defense mechanism perhaps. Is it right ?? Is it wrong?? I don’t know. But it is true and you know it.

Veteran residents of the City of Sin (I’m not sure if we actually have citizens) develop a blissful “unawareness” of their environment. Most don’t see the unfortunate sleeping under benches or someone simply sleeping off the previous night’s adventures in a part of town even locals usually avoid. Staring at the beer bottle they hold as if it was talking to them and revealing the secrets of the universe that lie in its glassy brown bottom.

Las Vegas never really gets back to normal because it doesn’t really have one except for the eternal cycle of look, notice remember and move on. We Sinners are not bad people. We just understand they way things actually work and except it for what it is. We can deal because we know that is how it is in the City of Sin.

Love You Sinners