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.