Tuesday November 17, 2015

No photo today.  I have had something on my mind for days, and tonight brought it home.  A few times when I was traveling Route 30 West in Greensburg, I noticed an older stalky gentleman along the side of the road.  I only had time for quick glances, but I could tell there was a variety of ‘stuff’ – looked like junk to me – in a little cluster of trees off to the right.

At first I thought he was just looking through the trash that someone had thoughtlessly tossed aside.  But then I noticed him walking around, bundled up, near the little pile.  It seemed incredible to me that someone would even bother with the stuff.  Didn’t look like much to me.

But tonight, as I slowed for traffic, I noticed a blazing fire in the little hovel.  And there he sat by the fire, alone in the cold dusky evening.

Homeless.

I’d been to San Francisco, and Vegas, and had seen homeless people sleeping in doorways and on park benches, with shopping carts and paper sacks, asking for donations or singing for a few pennies from passers-by.  But I had never seen anyone on my own city streets.  Or in this case, in a copse of trees along a highway entrance ramp.

Sounds like a story, you might say.  Or I was using my imagination, maybe.  But no.  There he sat, huddled by the fire, with the bare trees the only roof, and the cold ground and a pile of rubble his floor and walls.  The thought of that has settled in my mind, and I can’t shake it.  What could I do?  Give him food?  Money?  Offer help?  Call someone –  who?  I don’t know; I have no idea.  A few dollars or a bag of groceries may help for a day, or several hours, or maybe even a week or two.  But it wouldn’t give him a home, or warmth, or family.

Please pray with me, for this unknown soul, living in the cold glow of a blazing fire – it intrigues me but saddens me immensely – and I have no idea about what to do.

Homeless.