Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Visit to the Homeless Camp

I went to the homeless camp today, Christmas. I had gifts, small ones, I'd bought for those folks, some wool socks and gloves, toiletries, food, cat food, some other things I thought might make life a tiny bit easier for them. At least I wanted them to know somebody was thinking about them.

Nobody was there. A huge tree, probably 18 inches across, had fallen across the trail merely 15 feet from one of the tents. That must have been extremely frightening to hear come crashing down. I wonder if this occurred in the big windstorm. There were signs someone is still living there, or had recently been there. I left the gifts. The plastic storage container a friend of mine bought, for them to store cat food, was half full of rainwater, empty of any cat food, with the lid off. I dumped out the rainwater, and put another bag of cat food inside it.

I saw no one, not even one cat. I put out cat food, left the gifts and food where they would see it, and left.

I hope they are ok. They have hard lives. I know, you'll say, most of their problems are self-induced. I know this is true. But they're human beings. They're suffering human beings. The woman has been raped multiple times. I know there is no solution for her, or for many of the homeless. I know many will have tough ends to their lives. But in the meantime, I don't see any reason not to treat fellow human beings with some kindness.

We're all not really very seperated from each other, really. Tiny differences--just some wood walls, a roof, bank accounts and nice clothes are all that differentiate one of us from another, in many instances. There are good people and bad people with and without homes.

I don't meet saints, really, out there, with homes or without. We've all got our problems and our blaring glaring faults.

Sometimes I see our existence as extremely frail. I see the thin layer of dirt and vegetation atop this huge spinning molten rock we call earth. We live in that thin thin fragile layer of dirt and vegetation. We often live upon this fragile layer with arrogance, like only we matter, like only a very few of us humans even matter. It's a funny joke.

The universe is vast. We know things. We don't know most things. I look into the stars and understand I am a speck and nothing more.

1 comment:

  1. We all have our issues, all have the bag-o-crap we carry with us. Some are able to carry that load and still function out amongst the masses, others aren't. Some loads are bigger than others. Survival is dependent upon support from others, mental and physical challenges/abilities and plain 'ole hard-wiring.

    It is infuriating to me at this stage in my life when I read of or hear anyone casting blame on the homeless or anyone suffering/struggling. This sense of rugged individualism, where you and you alone are responsible for your entire existance, is ridiculous and utterly untrue. No one makes it and makes it happily and healthily w/o the love and support of others. We need one another.

    That is what love is and does.

    ReplyDelete

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