After withdrawing my last £2 from the bank in order to afford my fix of the brown demon (tobacco not heroin) and plying my custom at the shop that sold the merchandise I was seeking, I walked gleefully out of the doors of the shop and carried on staring down at my hands as they perfectly rolled that little death tube I was longing for.

No sooner had I sparked said tube of death and began exhaling the first puffs of ecstasy when I passed by a person selling the big issue (if you don't know it's what they give to homeless people to sell in England). This man selling the big issue inquired to me "BIG ISSUE SIR", now myself being content with my rollie carried on walking as I quenched the thirst of my addiction, now this is when from behind I hear the holler of "YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE THE INTELLIGENCE TO RESPOND". I carried on walking.

Now I have been thinking about this all day and have come to a couple of conclusions about this encounter that I would like to share and I hope you'll give your own opinions about it.

Firstly I have a right to not ackowledge any person who randomly addresses me in the street, I have the right to my own personal space and do not deserve to be insulted by someone in the street who I don't even know. They shouldn't think that just because they're homeless they have a right to guilt trip me as I walk by them like I would a lot of other people on the street who are trying to sell me shit, it's not like I actually owe him anything.

From his point of view though there must be a lot of people who pass him by and ignore him just like I did, maybe he had had enough of it just like everyone else does and decided to snap for once, I know I most probably would after a while.

How might things have worked out differently if I had behaved in a different way, would me saying no thank you to him have made his day better?(I couldn't have bought the magazine he was hawking me even if I wanted to because I didn't have any money left. Which from previous experiences isn't that great), did a person who was contemplating buying his magazine not bother either because he thought that what he said was rude? Could this person have been able to buy some food? In reality there are too many different things to consider.

The strangest thing about being insulted by a homeless guy is that I don't know whether I should feel bad that I ignored him or angry because he insulted me.