Count Your Blessings While Remembering the Homeless
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008This morning, I watched part of a television program that showed several television personalities going to kitchens that serve food to the homeless. This week they helped to serve turkey dinners. One of the stars said that doing so was a humbling experience that made her realize the old saying, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” How true that statement is.
For the most part, we live our comfortable lives and we do not give much thought to those less fortunate, until we see them on the street. For awhile, my home town was rumored to be giving out free, one-way tickets to Florida to homeless individuals, perhaps thinking that at least there, they wouldn’t freeze to death. Then, the practice was deemed illegal.
Every city in America has them, and most people fear the homeless because they do not want to become their victims. Unfortunately, the homeless are often not just homeless, many are also mentally ill. In fact, many of them are veterans, drug abusers, or victims of domestic violence. Some have permanent a mental incapacity that is untreated, and sometimes, innocent children are somehow dragged into the dismal situation of living in shelters.
While homelessness is a situation we would all like to rectify, it is a complex social phenomena. Some of those without a home, prefer that lifestyle. They do not want to live a confined life, or adhere to the expectations of society. All we can do, in such a situation, is to offer what we can. The Ugly Quilts program, begun as a ministry in Pennsylvania, uses collected fabrics, batts or old blankets, quilt blocks, panels, and other unwanted supplies, to make quilts that can be rolled up during the day, but that are no so pretty that the recipient would be a victim of someone wanting to steal his “sleeping bag.” That is one way to help: Donate Goods or Dollars, or Help to Organize an Effort to Make Ugly Quilts for your community.
A wonderful file with all kinds of links about the Ugly Quilt program
Let’s not forget the power of prayer. While you are saying prayers of thanksgiving around your table on Thursday, think of the rest of the world’s people and offer a silent prayer for all who are suffering. No matter how little we may think we have, we surely have much more than we realize. We, as humans, are never satisfied, but we need to be appreciative of the people and the things that we are able to enjoy. The simple things are always the best, including the love and nurturing of all things living with which and with whom we interact in our daily lives.
There have always been the poor. In my neighborhood, in the nineteenth century there was, indeed, the Poor Farm where people who were dirt poor or mentally disturbed, etc. could live and work to eek out a meager subsistence. At least there the opportunity for pride in the work that was done to rise above adverse circumstances.
Today, we have no Poor Farms. In fact, in this neck of the woods, we have very few farms at all. For years, a man who was severely mentally ill walked the streets with a shopping cart filled with the sum total of his earthly belongings: a suitcase, a can opener, cans of spaghetti, and a baseball bat. He used to sleep in the big sandbox in the Legislative Garage. He has not been seen around here for several years. Perhaps he died. He would annoy local businesses by using their facilities for his basic needs and to wash up. His claim to fame was in having killed his wife. Somehow, his homelessness seemed like a self-inflicted purgatory. People like that need our compassion, not our scorn. They always live a tormented life made crazy with guilt.
We wish you much happiness this Thanksgiving week. We all have so much for which to give thanks.
Here is a song for the occasion:
http://www.quiltersmuse.com/let_us_break_bread_together.htm
Best wishes,
Patricia Cummings
