My backpack weighed between 40-60 lbs. Wherever I found safe to sleep was typically about a mile away from any opportunities to make money or food. From the time I woke up every morning, to the time I go to sleep, and beyond, I was working. Fighting for my own survival. Some days were definitely easier than others, but there were no days off.
Oddly enough, I found groups to volunteer with. Many of us do. I spent my days thinking of others and their needs, rather than just my own. Working with free food kitchens is awesome. It's emotionally rewarding, and it keeps you busy. It gave me community and family at all times, and gave me a purpose greater than my self.
While not all homeless people are hopped up on civic duty, it's surprising how many of us were. When our bus rolled in, you fawned over us, giving us everything we needed to feed your town and the next. But...why? Why did the homeless in your area need a fresh faced approachable mascot to donate to, when the need had been there the whole time?
We are, as a species, lazy. Rather than take on the emotional and physical labor of solving problems ourselves, we outsource our problem solving to God. Here's the kicker, we were already given this job. Praying about it and walking away won't get it done. God isn't going to send superman to fix things for us. He sent us. We are his outsourced labor.
So why are we, as a society, leaving the task of crowd sourcing and distributing food security to those experiencing lack themselves? Why can't we, as a nation, be bothered to care in a way that doesn't leave such a deficit that homeless people are picking up the slack?
So many people want so badly to believe that homeless people are homeless due to their own faults as a way to make us feel safe. So much so that society is projecting it's feelings of self on to the homeless. Victim blaming helps separate the masses from the ideation that it could be anyone.
But it doesn't do much else, to demonize victims of class warfare. It doesn't change anything to say that all homeless people are lazy, or on drugs.
I've visited a lot of makeshift housing communities, strung along the side of the highway. Many of the inhabitants work during the day, if they can. They make a home in the cluster of woods, with no real walls. They are going to sit down and eat a meal together tonight. Propane stoves when fire has been outlawed. Tarps where they are not permitted tents.
They are patriots. Carving out a life worth living where there was none. Fighting for every day freedoms we've all but forgotten we have.
And sure, some of them are on drugs. Or alcohol. Because this life has taken so much from them and left them with a hole no one and nothing can fill. A middle class woman in the suburbs somewhere is having a pharmacy for breakfast and no one cares. But a homeless person self medicated and suddenly it's a viable excuse to withhold resource? Yeah ok.
Some of my best friends are still or have been homeless.
Most of us didn't consider ourselves homeless, because we found homes on the road and with each other. We were at home doing God's work that society refused. Scraping together change to buy coffee cups so we could serve one another as equals.
Every single day, each of us is given opportunities. Opportunities to change things, however slightly. We are each given chances to pick up some of the slack. Chances to shine, and to do His good work for Him. The question is what are you going to do with yours?
Loading excess gear on to the top of a bus
Writer riding one of these free food kitchen buses.
A coffee station while you wait for food
Bagged feminine hygiene products to give away
A feed we did in Kentucky
Chopping veggies for the soup in the back of the bus/kitchen
