Sitting in a coffee shop at the corner of a busy intersection in downtown Montreal,

I decided to drink my coffee without the distraction of my phone. I looked up at the sky, the way I used to in childhood when I searched for birds. This time, I didn’t see any swallows. Instead, I saw pigeons gathered in groups on the high-rise buildings, looking down at the street. They seemed to be watching the people below, taking off in groups or sometimes flying alone.

In my mind, I compared them to swallows birds that soar high in the sky, free and unbound by the world below. Then I thought of sparrows, the small, gentle birds that live in our backyards. Sparrows feel homely and secure within the boundaries of a familiar place.

But pigeons who are they most like in the human world?

I realized I see something of homeless people in them: free from many of society’s norms, yet not free enough to fly high. Here in Montreal, I see so many people living on the streets. My mind has not stopped thinking about them since the first day I stayed downtown a few months ago. What happened to them? What is their story? How did their lives lead them here, like pigeons lingering in the streets, searching for scraps of food left on the sidewalks?

I don’t know the details of their lives, but my heart aches for them, and I cannot erase their faces from my memory.

Isn’t it possible that the very rules and structures of society when they malfunction are part of the reason they end up here? What would a better world look like, one that is more equal and leaves no one homeless, hungry, or without shelter? What role do we have in shaping such a world?

What can I do?