TASK # 33

August 12th--August 19th

GO HOMELESS YOUNG MAN

Humanity cannot bear much reality   T.S. Eliot

You have shelter tonight? You're doing pretty good. Food? Your health? Some brainpower? Things ain't so bad...

Imagine standing on a street corner at 10pm without a cent in your pocket, nowhere to go and hunger in your gut and worse of all, no prospect that things will be better tomorrow. Now imagine that your children were standing next to you...

I picked up a flyer once. It was from a local church. They were looking for volunteers to help serve Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless. On a whim I went to the church center and signed up. And how to I define whim? An urge? A feeling? I don't know quite why I decided to sign up, because I had never done it before...

But I did. I showed up on Thanksgiving morning at 10:30am. There were dozens of volunteers hustling around; some were bone tired because they were up all night cooking turkeys and stuffing--others were peppy and bright. They made coffee, set the long tables, laid out the buffet line, went back and forth from the kitchen carrying biscuits and bowls of corn and potatoes and lima beans; others filled plastic cups with orange juice....

Then the homeless began to arrive. I had expected to see a lot of older men in tattered clothes, and there were a number who fit that description, but there were also women, and children, and 20 somethings in jeans and tee shirts; some held their heads high while others didn't look at anyone; some were crisp and friendly, others mumbled or didn't speak at all. In short, the mix of people shredded my stereotype of what the homeless looked like...

The rest of the day was a blur. I helped make coffee, carry trays, re-fill cups, lead the elderly to a seat...I saw grateful men and women who were beat down by an unforgiving recession but not without their pride accept a plate of food in the same vein as it was given, with honor and kindness. 

The parish pastor stood by the entrance door and greeted each person with a handshake and a hand on the shoulder. When you are on the street you are invisible; many of them simply weren't accustomed to people looking them in the eye, let alone extend a hand, a kind word...

I left in the late afternoon. As I drove home I tried to categorize the experience--fit it into my body of work, but I was very conflicted...should I feel good about myself? After all, I was going home to eat from my refrigerator and sleep in my bed while those poor souls were back on the street, at 10pm, without a cent in their pocket, and nowhere to go...

Would I do it again. Yes. Because it is better to do something than nothing.

TASK:

Volunteer! Work for a day in a soup kitchen. Help out at an AIDS shelter. Man a suicide line, help out at an animal shelter, clean up a local park, tutor some homeless kids, work the info desk at a hospital. Anything.

Scout it out. Sign yourselt up. Get busy.

 Then let me know what you did, and experience. joedoebula@gmail.com