This is a "blows my mind" moment. This is something that truly amazes me and yet breaks my heart. These are the possessions of a homeless man I run into on my daily trek to my office....I don't know whether you can see it or not but there's a pallet (on wheels no less) that's about 10x5 with a rope that he uses to drag it along over his shoulders....three shopping carts ...two small dumpters just brimming over with "stuff". The funny part of all this is that it's in a different spot every time I go by! I mean he's got enough "stuff" here to funish a five room apartment!!!!! and it's not all junk either...there's kitchen chairs, a table, shelves, paintings.....All I can figure is that maybe he sets up this stuff at night and entertains? I realize this is not something to joke about...but....man!!! he must be in really good shape to be moving this shit around like that.....Maybe some day I'll ask him!
3 comments:
Yes, ask him. Engage him. I once heard that Mother Teresa, who to some degree is sentimentalized by being made into an icon, thanked the poor for giving her permission to help them. This came home to me many years ago when I worked in Manhattan. I saw a homeless man on a sidewalk grate, wintertime. The grate kept him warm. I went to give him a dollar. He looked at me and said no thank you or words to that effect. His eyes looked lucid. He seemed composed and not mentally ill -- outwardly. His act struck me as a humbling thing, a declaration of dignity. A friend of mine, a priest, says he always tries to make contact, literally, with touch, in a situation like that, saying that the other person provides an encounter of grace.
It's kind of humbling. You almost wonder what his life story is. With so much stuff, maybe he was able to take everything with him when he had to leave home. Maybe he's collected it and hopes to have a home again.
We have a guy like that who lives not too far from our office. When we all go out back and bitch about work, we usually end up seeing him and it provides a very humbling moment that we are all one bad stop away from living like him.
Wow, that is a lot to think about. Hopefully he ends up doing ok...
This is so unbearably sad. Every day on my walk I pass some people as well. There is one guy, he looks kind of young who absolutely breaks my heart. I have watched him become emaciated over time. I've given him breakfast and an umbrella and to be honest I just want to take him home with me and care for him. I don't know his name but I wonder about him all the time when I don't see him. It breaks my heart. I wish there was more I could do. When hurts most I think is when you loose touch with humanity. Where you don't even say hello to someone or goodbye ot talk. I wonder about the silence they suffer through. I can't imagine always being in my head... ~M
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