Len's News, Notes, and Stuff

I See Homeless People. Do You?

It’s Christmas-time, a time for joy, happiness, love and fellowship. It’s a time that many associate with seeing smiles of joy and hearts filled with gratitude. Is the greatest joy and gratitude to be found in the smiles and hearts of little children as they open their gifts? Maybe. But I know for certain that if you take a few moments of your time to see, acknowledge, and connect with a homeless person, you will see true gratitude – one unfettered by greed, however innocent.

I don’t stop to talk to every homeless person I come across. I’ll even admit that I don’t feel compassion for every homeless person that I come across. But sometimes I do stop and connect with someone who needs help and, more than that, needs to be recognized as a person of worth.

Just tonight, as I walked to Union Station (a subway station in Toronto), I saw a man sitting at the side of the hallway, sniffling as though he’d been crying. He looked up, we made eye contact, and acknowledged one another. He didn’t ask me for money. I didn’t pass by with a “Sorry, man” or worse, just ignore him. I stopped, kneeled and spoke with him for 5 minutes.

5 minutes of your time can make a real difference in another human being’s life. It is the gift of recognition, of respect, and at its most basic level, of love.

The man told me about his history with candor, as we are all wont to do sometimes when troubled and talking to strangers whom we may never see again.

He told me that he has been homeless for 12 years. He has overcome a drug addiction, but admitted that he was still alcoholic. He told me about being shoo’d away from everywhere by security guards, and about the dangers of homeless shelters – where rape is an ever-present danger, where your shoes and socks can be stolen, and even your underwear right off you in the night. He told me he had been molested by his father from age 6 til 16, and he admitted, yes sometimes he liked it and went back for more.

I was speaking to a person. I was speaking to a real human being with a past and a history. I was speaking to a man with a heart, with emotion, with fears, and with longing. He spoke of his depression, and yet I sensed in him dignity and strength, hard-won wisdom and understanding.

But I was heartened to hear that I was not the only person that evening to see him, acknowledge him, and connect with him. Another man had just spoken with him and was going to see if he could get him some food and help him. My conversation with the homeless man came to a close when the other man returned.

He was the same man I had passed in the hallway just a few moments ago, who had held a door open for me.

Every time I have taken a few moments of my time to acknowledge and connect with a homeless person, I have come from it with new knowledge and new perspective. Each time I have given the gift of respect, I have seen real gratitude and real honesty in the person to whom I spoke.

It’s easy to ignore the homeless. It’s easy to never even see them in the first place. But if you open your eyes, you will see them. If you open your heart, you will discover someone with worth. You will discover a real human being. Try it sometime. And if you do it during Christmas season, you’ll see real gratitude and be enlarged by the experience, beyond what giving a material gift alone could ever accomplish.

I see homeless people. You can, too.