“There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.”
“The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty — it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There’s a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.”
Vancouver Canada is the 3rd richest cities in the world but this is not an uncommon sight in this rich city I live. Children, women, men and families laying their hungry body’s anywhere they can.
I know most people think these people are there because they are drug addicts. I wasn’t. The prevailing belief is they must be lazy. How stupid is that. For the luxury of laziness one would choose to be living on the streets? That is ignorant.I was standing next to a man (appeared rich) in the supermarket and we saw what appeared to be a street person, he said, “what is the matter with them, why don’t they just pull themselves up by their boots straps, I work for a living”. I told him I felt sorry for him. He did’t understand. I told him he didn’t know what he was talking about. He did not understand. That’s sad to me.
Do we love these people? Do we offer them a kind word? Do we offer them a smile? No is the simple word.
Recently a young Japanese student was murdered in Vancouver and her body left in a very densely populated area of the city and the 1st thing in peoples mind was – it must be one of “those” people, the street people. Of course this murder was terrible, no one can argue with that. But this is how it goes.
It is not enough that they are homeless, hungry, frightened and alone. But they are judged to be BAD. If you think that a street person is the BAD person do you therefore think that the person who is not on the streets is the GOOD? You would be wrong, of course.
So you live with hunger and fear every single minute of the day, but also with the misguided judgments of others.
I know – I have been there.
Homelessness if violation of basic human rights. Most of the truly wretched people that we see are ill, and too many are elderly and sick. It is a crime for which history will hold us accountable.
Hi Robert, yes homelessness is a tragedy. I of course have been there and it’s an experience you never get over. In every way it is terrible no mater who it is but when you see an 80 year old sleeping on the streets and going through garbage to eat it will break your heart to which you will never ever erase from your mind. It is a disgrace that a country like Canada will tolerate such a terrible thing.
Love you Robert, Louise
I’m sorry that you had to live through homelessness Louise. It is a deeply traumatic experience and betrayal of all of the basic codes of civilized life. No country that treats it’s citizens like garbage and call itself civilized.
Thank you my darlin’