A few years ago, I was in Vancouver, Canada. I am an extreme early riser, and on waking, realized that it was too early to get coffee at my hotel, so I asked my cell phone for directions to the nearest open coffee shop.
During my walk there, the streets were empty except for what appeared to be homeless individuals. When I got to my destination, I had to tiptoe around people sitting and lying on the sidewalk in front of its entrance. I placed my order, a large cup of black coffee. It was very hot, and my plan was to take it back to the hotel, so I asked them to double-cup it. I departed, again navigating through the people on the sidewalk.
It finally dawned on me that I was in an unsafe environment. I was an old man without any defensive weapons—except, maybe, for the cup of hot coffee, which I could throw in a would-be mugger’s face. Doing so would buy me some time. Then again, when he caught up with me, he would likely be really, really angry.
Long story short: I made it back to my hot…