I usually assign a title before I start an entry because it helps to keep me focused. This time, I'm blogging because I think something significant happened, but I'm not quite sure what it was.
When 6pm rolled around yesterday, I feeling kinda down because all I'd managed to do was sleep most of the day fighting off a sinus infection that's going around when I had planned to spend most of the day working on my ebook on music theory. So I headed out to the library hoping to isolate myself and get 3 hours in before the library closed at 9pm. Shortly after I got there, I got an invite from "Rob" inviting to treat me to dinner at a local taco truck. So I left to meet him, to discover that "Charles" (a pseudonym for another former Tuesday night regular) was there as well. After dinner, we decided to head over to a McDonald's to hang out and take advantage of the $1 coffee special.
We'd just all gotten there and found a table when "Bart" suddenly showed up. "Bart" is another former Tuesday night regular who hadn't been around for at least a year. We found out that he'd been working out in Beaumont tending horses but had recently come back into town. Bart seemed to think that this was some sort of divine coincidence as he claimed to have been thinking of me the past week. The way the conversation went, maybe it was. I'm not going to go into the details, but I'm curious to see how this turns out.
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I originally posted this last night, and I now see that one thing I neglected to mention is the kind of impact that chance encounter had on my spirits as I went from feeling I wasn't accomplishing anything to a sense that I was accomplishing something on an entirely different level that I hadn't been able to appreciate before. Perhaps I'm reading too much into what happened yesterday.
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
A Good Day
Today is a particularly good day.
Last night I picked up "Rob" from the Greyhound bus station. I've shared some of his story in past entries in this and other blogs. The short version is that he's met someone and wants to settle down in LA and he wants to participate regularly as a volunteer every week. He also tells me that his girlfriend who will also be moving out here wants to help and that she's a great cook.
I wish everyone could share the same kind of experience knowing that you've made a difference. Some of you could be doing the same kind of thing. It would be great if you'd consider joining us on Tuesday nights, but more than anything, please consider doing *something* to try and make a difference.
Last night I picked up "Rob" from the Greyhound bus station. I've shared some of his story in past entries in this and other blogs. The short version is that he's met someone and wants to settle down in LA and he wants to participate regularly as a volunteer every week. He also tells me that his girlfriend who will also be moving out here wants to help and that she's a great cook.
I wish everyone could share the same kind of experience knowing that you've made a difference. Some of you could be doing the same kind of thing. It would be great if you'd consider joining us on Tuesday nights, but more than anything, please consider doing *something* to try and make a difference.
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
One on One
We had a light turnout this week. Often when this happens, it prompts an internal debate over what constitutes a successful night. It didn't matter so much to me before, but now I imagine that to impress people enough to encourage to support BK financially, I need to be able to document measurable accomplishments, create a buzz, what have you. But that's not me. Actually, I consider what happened this week to be pretty significant, as I was able to connect in a significant way with a regular for the first time.
"Donald" (not his real name, I will never use anyone's real name unless given explicit permission to do so) deserves an honorable mention anyway; recently he became aware that I was funding BK entirely out of my (dwindling) resources and he's brought me bags of beans and bags of rice to contribute to the cause (the only person to do so). He was grateful just to have someone provide meals for him and content to have beans and rice. The first time he did so, I wanted to give him a hug but I had no idea how he'd take it.
Apparently Donald's been on the street all of his life. His mother is also homeless, and Donald usually has no idea of where she is, which is a constant source of concern for him. He's a difficult person to figure out. He often greets people in song "__________, you know you're a personnnnnnn...." in some cases, getting on their nerves resulting in them telling him to shut up. He always says thank you in line, but usually with an affected accent of some sort. In general conversation, he's typically throwing out non sequiteurs and/or double entrendres. But then every once in a while, he'll throw out something extremely lucid that's left me wondering...
Donald is typically identifiable from afar because of his signature green shirt and scooter he pedals around Pasadena. During the summer months you can see salt stains on the back of his shirt from perspiration. Tonight I asked him if I could give him a couple of my t-shirts and he responded by telling me that he recycles shirts regularly, and he chooses to wear green shirts all the time to support greenpeace and only one person has ever noticed. The conversation moved to what he'd done to get by financially, and a side of Donald I'd not seen before emerged. Donald's been on the street all his life because of choices made by his mother, yet Donald is driven by the idea of making enough money to be able to put his mother into a stable environment and a roof over her head. He's not pursued conventional jobs because he's seen other people get fired for no good reason - and he doesn't want to risk getting a job, and then losing it letting down his mother in the process. He's also aware that the types of jobs for which he'd be able to land would not allow him to provide both for himself and his mother, so he hopes to be able to do so exercising his creative gifts in music, dance and art. He acknowledged my observation that becoming an adult did not mean he had to act as a parent, and his priority should be to take care of himself but he's driven by concern for his mother's plight.
I wonder what Donald would be like had he had grown up under different circumstances, and I hope that there's a way for him to still get there. It's beyond my scope, but I'd like to think that if he was able to connect with the right person(s) it'd be a start.
We need more people to come out hear the stories of people like Donald one on one.
"Donald" (not his real name, I will never use anyone's real name unless given explicit permission to do so) deserves an honorable mention anyway; recently he became aware that I was funding BK entirely out of my (dwindling) resources and he's brought me bags of beans and bags of rice to contribute to the cause (the only person to do so). He was grateful just to have someone provide meals for him and content to have beans and rice. The first time he did so, I wanted to give him a hug but I had no idea how he'd take it.
Apparently Donald's been on the street all of his life. His mother is also homeless, and Donald usually has no idea of where she is, which is a constant source of concern for him. He's a difficult person to figure out. He often greets people in song "__________, you know you're a personnnnnnn...." in some cases, getting on their nerves resulting in them telling him to shut up. He always says thank you in line, but usually with an affected accent of some sort. In general conversation, he's typically throwing out non sequiteurs and/or double entrendres. But then every once in a while, he'll throw out something extremely lucid that's left me wondering...
Donald is typically identifiable from afar because of his signature green shirt and scooter he pedals around Pasadena. During the summer months you can see salt stains on the back of his shirt from perspiration. Tonight I asked him if I could give him a couple of my t-shirts and he responded by telling me that he recycles shirts regularly, and he chooses to wear green shirts all the time to support greenpeace and only one person has ever noticed. The conversation moved to what he'd done to get by financially, and a side of Donald I'd not seen before emerged. Donald's been on the street all his life because of choices made by his mother, yet Donald is driven by the idea of making enough money to be able to put his mother into a stable environment and a roof over her head. He's not pursued conventional jobs because he's seen other people get fired for no good reason - and he doesn't want to risk getting a job, and then losing it letting down his mother in the process. He's also aware that the types of jobs for which he'd be able to land would not allow him to provide both for himself and his mother, so he hopes to be able to do so exercising his creative gifts in music, dance and art. He acknowledged my observation that becoming an adult did not mean he had to act as a parent, and his priority should be to take care of himself but he's driven by concern for his mother's plight.
I wonder what Donald would be like had he had grown up under different circumstances, and I hope that there's a way for him to still get there. It's beyond my scope, but I'd like to think that if he was able to connect with the right person(s) it'd be a start.
We need more people to come out hear the stories of people like Donald one on one.
Tuesday, January 3, 2017
Changes
Tonight marked the first homeless feeding for BK in 2017. Circumstances led to getting to the park about 45 minutes earlier than we normally do, and someone who regularly came to dinner in the past happened by.
This person, who I will refer to as M, told me that they stopped coming because of certain individuals who were also coming for dinner. Apparently these certain individuals would encourage M to try various types of drugs, which M has no interest in doing. M did not stay for dinner. That made me feel sad - especially since we were serving one of M's favorites that night.
After dinner, I mentioned M's comment to the folks who stayed to talk. The consensus was sympathy for that position; and a number of people made the observation how there were new faces showing up among the homeless, and a common characteristic was an overall lack of respect, for want of a better way to put it. One person told of how he invited some newcomers to share a spot he'd found, only to have these newcomers basically desecrate the place by relieving themselves there, among other things.
I'm not sure what to make of this.
This person, who I will refer to as M, told me that they stopped coming because of certain individuals who were also coming for dinner. Apparently these certain individuals would encourage M to try various types of drugs, which M has no interest in doing. M did not stay for dinner. That made me feel sad - especially since we were serving one of M's favorites that night.
After dinner, I mentioned M's comment to the folks who stayed to talk. The consensus was sympathy for that position; and a number of people made the observation how there were new faces showing up among the homeless, and a common characteristic was an overall lack of respect, for want of a better way to put it. One person told of how he invited some newcomers to share a spot he'd found, only to have these newcomers basically desecrate the place by relieving themselves there, among other things.
I'm not sure what to make of this.
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