Have I mentioned before how much I love public transportation? Man it’s a wonderful thing. The funny thing is that up until last week I had pretty much only gone to Outback and back (that is, since I’ve had a bus pass). I went on one easy trip across town to my parents but other than that it’s been pretty routine. Well last week I had to go to the Laurelhurst area of Portland. It was to be an easy trip, two buses and a max ride. And it turned out to be an easy trip too, except for the fact that I missed the max by two minutes which set me back 15 and caused me to miss my bus by literally 1 minute which set me back another 15. It was frustrating. And it was bitingly cold. I was cold.
But on the good side, I started reading Under The Overpass on Monday and had it finished by Friday. Thank you mass transit system. That’s three bus books down in one an a half months and a whole stack to go!
Here’s the irony of the whole thing, Under The Overpass is about a couple of Christian guys who decided to live on the streets for 5 months. For some reason the book didn’t interest me a whole lot before I started. Kind of gimmicky to me I thought. But in the end it was an exceptional book, an easy read, simple, and enlightening. The irony was that I was so flippin’ cold and frustrated having to wait on the streets and all I wanted was to get back on the heated bus so that I could get back to reading my book about what it’s like to live on the streets in cold weather, hot sun, without food, etc. When I got back home I thought about the fact that my total of 30 minutes on the cold street chilled me to the bone while others live there, sleep there, and are stuck there. It made me glad that Renovatus is handing out all sorts of warm clothes this week to those freezind dudes on the street. And it made me want to take the next homeless person I saw to Wendy’s for lunch.
The End
Musings From The Ground Up
Initiating a new grassroots movement in downtown Vancouver
I also love public transportation. I used to hate it when I was a teenage brat in Port. but now that I am older and living on the east coast, I love it. I've been driving my car all over Oklahoma since I've been on break and if I have to pay for one more cent of gas I'll go mad.Did you buy the homeless guy lunch…or just want to? I've been thinking about buying a bunch of like $5-10 sonic and walmart gift cards and keeping them with me and giving them to homeless people on the streets when I see them. I haven't done it yet, but I should.
maybe this makes me a bad person.but I've had to witness so many homeless guys getting 86ed from the store for threatening to "f*ckin kill" 8 year old children (to their faces), uriniating on our floors, passing out on our toilets, doing drugs in our sinks, propositioning management sexually, stealing from our tip jar, washing their undergarments in our sink, smearing poo all over the bathroom, rolling "tobacco" cigarettes on our conters, dealing drugs from the comfy chairs, leaving their flies and empty booze in the corner, passing out from drugs in the lobby, etc., that…. I've lost a lot- if not all- of my sympathy for the homeless. I know that they are not of sound mind, but…. one Friday morning the nice Christian boys brought a homeless guy in to give him coffee and sit to talk and he stole right in front of everyone.I don't know.I'm almost heartless.
Dear HM,I am just amazed that your mom named you "Heartless"…I mean with a last name like, "McFartless"…that's wild.
That's a good point Heartless McFartless. I remember being in that same place when we hosted a homeless dinner every week in Portugal. It's hard not to get extremely burnt out after being around them for a while. Because the nature of living on the streets (no matter the reason) means that you're a mooch, invasive, etc. That's how you survive. And most homeless are there for a reason. Addictions, mental disorders, etc.So I understand your point. I wouldn't want to stay in that place, but its a pretty valid response. As a Christ Follower I can't stay in that place. The most shocking thing in the book was how they were treated by Christians. They were rarely helped, often yelled at, and pretty much completely rejected by them. It was terrible and I'd do not want to be that kind of Christian.
Yea, it is a good book.
i used to live near the laurelhurst area of pdx . . . sigh.