BlackFridayWatch.com

“Are you down here shopping,” I quizzed with the word shopping trailing out of my mouth as I noticed his bags were a little worn. “No…. no…. I live down here,” he replied allowing space to fill his words increasing my awkwardness.

I’m always impressed with how some homeless people are able to keep themselves together. With his shopping bags from Crate & Barrel and other retailers, this man could at first glance pass for any other Michigan Avenue shopper.

Like many city dwellers, I’ve spent the years building up a shell against homeless people. In a city of three million, they are as ubiquitous as parking meters and lampposts and most of us spend our time ignoring them as such. I turn away from the man and go back to working on my laptop. I feel ashamed in a way – here I am documenting America’s spending habits – our copious consumption - and I feel like I have to ignore this man and his attempts at friendly chatter because he doesn’t fit my criteria for who I want to interact with.

After a few minutes he asks, “Do you know what a ‘tipping point’ is?” Puzzled I respond, “Umm… I suppose it could be several things.”

He looks me over and explains that the “tipping point” is a literary device used to describe a trend that suddenly reaches a critical mass in the population. He says there was book that described the trend and since then it has been used frequently – so that the phrase itself has reached its own “tipping point.”

This was interesting I thought. The man seemed lucid and insightful so I relaxed a bit. Sensing he had a captive audience he continued, “You know what I think the next big ‘tipping point’ will be? Digital money.” He motioned toward the newspaper on the counter in front of him and pointing toward an article explained, “This is about gift cards and how they are becoming popular. And I think that points to a bigger trend.” He went on to mention everything from electronic transactions to eBay’s acquisition of PayPal.

Then he mentioned bartering. “You know, were all programmed to think that the barter system is outdated – that money is better.” He explained that people barter every day. “For example, the other day a guy wanted to buy a copy of my book, but he didn’t have cash – so he bought a Starbucks gift card with his credit card and then bartered that for a copy.”

Wait a second, I thought – did this guy just say that he had a book? “Sure, it’s called 50 Ways to Thrive, Putting the Sizzle Back Into Your Life.” And from one of his bags he produced a neatly stapled copy printed on standard paper and slid it over to me. “My picture is in there,” and sure enough it was.

The title page lists the author’s name as Dr. Richard Talsky. “Yup, that’s me. I’m on the web too.”

Fascinated I asked how much he charged for a copy, “I charge whatever people can pay.” I fished two dollars out of my wallet and handed them over. Curious I asked what he was a doctor of, “I’m a chiropractor.”

So when I got to the next Starbucks I googled him and sure enough, he is on the web. Incredible.

Dr. Talsky’s book is essentially a self-help manual listing 50 suggestions for living a more fulfilling life. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but it’ll be fun to thumb through.

As I was packing my bag Dr. Talsky asked me what I had been working. “I’m writing for a website about shopping.” His eyes gleamed, “And we were just talking about shopping. That’s synchronicity – it’s in my book too.”