How I came to see a homeless man as my neighbor | Opinion
Earl, a man experiencing homelessness, pushes a cart in the 1500 block of Pennsylvania Avenue after being surveyed during an annual homelessness point-in-time count on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023, in Dallas.He must have blown in riding the West wind. One of life’s small intrusions, one day, just there. He was there most mornings, sitting at the curb, rising to an outstretched hand, like a wounded bird. The same soiled jeans, same dirty sweatshirt proclaiming “Christ is the Answer.
Slowly, cautiously, somewhat fearfully, change came. My resistance to recognition seemed somehow misplaced. Approaching the car window hesitantly, hoping for the best, expecting the worst, he accepted the bill offered with a weary smile and a raspy, “God bless you.” I lay no claim to altruism. Mine is not a selfless life. I fully understand that I made no real difference in his reality, nor if my charity enabled some bad behavior or conflicted with the city’s larger plan to care for the homeless.