UPFRONT September 1, 2008 Issue

More than just a job

KIM SHIPPEY,

Titus Sparrow Park, Boston. 7:00 a.m. A woman in a tracksuit takes a loaf of bread from a bag slung over her shoulder. For more than ten minutes she feeds the birds that fly in to greet her. You couldn't find a hungrier, noisier, more grateful breakfast club.

Another woman uses a broom to sweep up the sand tossed out of the park's sandbox the previous day by overzealous toddlers. She tirelessly retrieves all the toys and puts them back where they belong.

A young man sits in dappled summer sunlight on a bench alongside a man of riper years and reads the morning newspaper aloud to him. The reader's youthful voice competes with the flutter of wings, and a nodding head acknowledges that this is unselfish work being well done—and appreciated.

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