TAKING A STAND IN THE NAME OF LOVE





Before I get into telling my story, there are some thoughts that I'd like to share with you.





Homeless people are the lepers of society. They're the untouchables, treated by our society as though they have some kind of contagious disease that if contracted leads one to a filthy and ruinous existence. It's usually assumed that homeless people landed on the streets from a combination of substance abuse and mental illness. Having voluntarily worked for charitable organizations that service the homeless community and having actually lived on the streets for a few years now, I can say from personal experience that this assumption in many cases is correct. A good percentage of the chronically homeless, those people whose lifestyles conjer up the most common mental images that non-homeless people picture when thinking of the homeless (the raving lunatic badly in need of clean clothing and a shower or the person passed out on a bus bench), usually do suffer from a combination of alcoholism, addiction to illicit drugs, and mental problems. But the term "homeless" applies to a wide variety of people, including people living out of their cars and individuals and families living in pay as you go motels. Some homeless people have met with financial ruin for any number of reasons. Health issues and job loss are common in today's hard times. Others simply can't afford a roof over their head working for wages that barely pay them enough to feed themselves.



I think that one of the reasons that the homeless are treated like social outcasts is that many people realize that the path leading to homelessness can be a short one, especially for themselves. Losing a job or contracting a financially devastating illness isn't too hard to imagine. Denial of ones own vulnerability takes the form of indifference to other peoples homeless plight. It's much easier to look the other way with a thousand mile stare of I don't care than to acknowledge someone who's not to different than themselves. Looking the other way is also a form of denial that obstructs the human gift of compassion. According to one of my favorite Jing Si aphorisms, "Undergoing hardship for the sake of others is compassion.". Life is tough enough, why undergo hardship for others when its so much easier to prop up ones own fragile and diminutive ego by looking down upon the less fortunate. Homeless people are an easy target for ego propping. You don't have to have much to feel better off than someone who appears to have nothing at all.



There is, however, something that we all posses that's priceless. It's the ability to love one another. Compassion is the unique human trait that truly separates us from the rest of the creatures living on our planet. We are all well aware of our human familys' ability to do harm to itself. With our collective intelligence and opposable digits we have gone from chucking spears at one another to producing nuclear weapons and flying robots that kill [military drones]. These modern killing devices aren't products of the better angels of our nature. They are products of the worst of our animal nature; the drive to dominate resources beyond natures ability to establish equilibrium and below our capacity for caring for each other in a loving manner.



Sometimes the violent issues facing humanity seem desperately hopeless, and in a larger sense they probably are. But all we can do as individuals is take a stand against compassion killing indifference to human suffering and let the cards fall where they may.



Next up: How Do You Do?