A while back...

Back in Miami I saw a patient in the local homeless shelter clinic. All he was complaining about at the time was his headache, but since he was the only person I was there to see we talked for an hour or two. Back when he was young he used to sell drugs which lead to him being sent to prison. When he got out he started hooking up with several different women in the area. He estimates that it is one of these trysts that lead to him contacting HIV. His life since then has consisted of more crime, drug addiction, more sex, and failing health.
The first thing that stuck out to me was the depression*. Now, depression is sadly common among people with HIV/AIDS but this man described it differently than I had heard it before. He talked about his fellow residents at the homeless shelter, how they were dirty, how they were rude, how he could imagine their germs attacking him, how he loathed being around them. "And yet," I thought to myself, "How many of these other men have the same or similar stories as this man?**" Maybe that's what Hell is, being forced to be around the people we are most like. Then again, depending on how good you've been, maybe that's heaven.
The second thing that struck me was what a good time he seemed to be have despite all of his troubles. For these two hours I gave more to this man than acetaminophen, I gave him the chance to talk to a friend.


* None of the stuff I mentioned has anything to do with the clinical signs of depression
**It would be terribly unfair to generalize that the homeless are all drug addicts, rude, infected with HIV, etc. The analogy I made was meant to be taken philosophically, not literally.