On our homeless

Recently, after picking our great-grandson up from school, Billie and I pulled into our neighborhood Quick Trip. Dang, gasoline is high! Anyway, I handed him my debit card. He got out of the car.

On his way into the QT, he walked past two of our city’s homeless who were sitting on the sidewalk and leaning against the fence. He didn’t seem to notice.

This is a young man who still holds the doors open for ladies. His sensitivity to others pleases us. So, I’ll say again, he didn’t seem to notice the homeless pair.

Is it possible that they made him adequately uncomfortable that he nervously ignored them? It’s possible. I should have spoken to him about it. But I didn’t. I’m not sure I would have known what to say.

A few Christmases back, my church gave me a book of daily readings, “Do Something Beautiful for God: The Essential Teachings of Mother Teresa.” I am now on my third year of reading Mother Teresa’s thoughts. Mother Teresa has a thing or two to say about the homeless.

The April 29th reading says, “To know the problem of poverty intellectually is not to understand it. It is not by reading that we come to understand it.”

I give to charities who place an emphasis on attempting to meet the needs of the homeless in my community. Why? I guess I perceive my community to have substantial needs, a sizable homeless population.

A friend asserted, “They are homeless because they choose to be.” I respond, “Define choice.”

The homeless are not a single category. Some are addicts and some aren’t. All are homeless. I am convinced there must be an answer but folks far smarter than me have tried and have yet to succeed.

There is a gritty 1987 movie, “Ironweed,” based on William Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize winning book of the same name. “Ironweed” captures the harsh nature of homelessness in a fashion that generally eludes literature and film on such scalding topics.

You’ve never heard of it. Well, Jack Nicolson and Meryl Streep are in the lead roles. William Kennedy wrote the screenplay. Well, as I wrote, the tale has a harsh and gritty truthfulness to it. It is an uncomfortable watch but nonetheless I recommend it.

And, yes, I know I earlier quoted Mother Teresa on the value of intellectual understanding. Still, we have to begin somewhere.

Squirrels, rabbits, peanuts, Coca-Cola and a back porch. I love spring. Grass and trees and weeds are all turning green, many flowers are blossoming. My porch is a dandy place for contemplation.

Before I have that conversation with my great-grandson, I’ll have to have a talk with myself. How do I explain to him what I can’t understand myself.

Dialogue from William Kennedy’s Ironweed “I’d like to buy this shirt from you. Will you take 2 bits for it?” – Francis Phelan (Jack Nicholson) “Why does a bum need a clean shirt?” – Rosskum (Hy Anzell)

Hal McBride writes a column, Just Thinkin’, published each week.