I looked, actually looked at poverty today.

[yvr girl]

I live in a nice neighbourhood in a large city. My world is not overrun with visions of the poor and the desperate, but the reminders are there. The reminders are people. People with signs. People who are ragged.

So often I look away and avoid their eyes. Sometimes I'm afraid and sometimes I don't want to see them.

I hate that I can look away and walk by. I hate that it doesn't pain me to action. I hate what it does to my soul.

I just went out to pick up some sushi. Along the way I saw a figure huddled next to a building, barely out of the rain. He was asleep, his sign leaning against his prone body.

Today, I couldn't look and not see. I couldn't cut off my humanity. I had to wake him up, but at least I brought food.

[Swede]

1. There but for the grace of god.........

Sometimes life is a humbling experience.

[CanuckAmok]

7. Baez/Ochs:

Show me a prison, show me a jail
Show me a prisoner whose face is growing pale
And I'll show you a young man with many reasons why
And there but for fortune
May go you or I
Show me an alley, show me a train
Show me a hobo who sleeps out in the rain
And I'll show you a young man with many reasons why
And there but for fortune
May go you or I
Show me the whiskey stains on the floor
Show me a drunken man as he stumbles out the door
And I'll show you a young man with many reasons why
And there but for fortune
May go you or I
Show me the country where the bombs had to fall
Show me the ruins of the buildings once so tall
And I'll show you a young land with so many reasons why
And there but for fortune
May go you or I -- or I

[Zuni]

2. We all should be VERY thankful

[wtmusic]

3. you rock

if we all took time out to do something like that once a day we'd change the world

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. My dear yvr girl,

Today you redeemed yourself...And that was a very good thing. I'll just bet the guy you woke up to feed was extraordinarily grateful. I've been to your city and it's one of the most beautiful ones I've ever seen. No graffiti, no trash accumulating everywhere, nice neighborhoods, lots of gorgeous parks, and of course the scenery is astonishing!

Today your soul drank from everlasting waters...

:toast:

[auntAgonist]

5. You probably touched his heart in a way you'll never know.

I know you touched mine.


thank you.


aA
kesha.

[chookie]

6. When I lived in Chicago....

I couldn't believe what I saw -- profound wrenching misery. I'd take the El through the South Side, and parts of it looked like Hiroshima.

I have sadly become alienated from religion with the rise of the authoritarian fundamentalists, but when I read a post like this, all the hardness that I have formed around my heart to protect it simply melts away, and I remember the joy I used to have in faith, thinking that Jesus Christ does in fact walk the streets every day, with many faces -- and today, you walked his walk.

You can't imagine -- you simply cannot comprehend -- what a radiant angel of mercy you were to this tragic man.

You made the world a better place today. The stars of hope still shine.

[CanuckAmok]

8. You DO rock.

where you live is such a microcosm. It's Canada's wealthiest and most impoverished postal codes, side by side.

It is a beautiful city, but the conditions of poverty which are fairly well hidden from the tourists is deplorable. The DES is approaching a Third World level of disease and living conditions... and when the Olympics come, these people won't be helped, they'll just be pushed out of the way.

[hfojvt]

9. "well I pass him by on the street each day

(brother don't you walk away)
he's about my size and about my age
(brother don't you walk away)
down a different road mighta been my friend
(brother don't you walk away)
but you never know how the road will bend
(brother don't you walk, brother don't you walk away, walk away)"

The Hooters

[mojavekid]

10. Wow.

What a supremely kind act.

[yvr girl]

11. No. I don't deserve that.

It was a small gesture. I'm sure he appreciated it, but it was a drop in the bucket.

[Ophelia Rising]

12. When I lived in Santa Fe...

I facilitated an open studio at a shelter once a week for an hour and a half and every week I was humbled again and again. I would complain about being in grad school full time and waitressing 5 nights a week and tryin' to work out my thesis blah, blah, blah, and then I would go to the shelter with my art supplies and all that whining seemed so trivial. The thing that shook me the most was that about 50% of the people that participated in my group were vetrans of the Vietnam war and they were still struggling with their demons today.....through all of my grad school internship experiences, facilitating that art group at the shelter gave me one of the most profound learning experinces I could have ever had....and when I quote Che Guevera and people call me a communist, I wonder if they have ever had an experience of hearing the stories from the children, women, and men in our nation that have "fallen through the cracks", instead they conviently say "those people choose to be homeless" and turn a blind eye. Some people say ignorance is bliss, I say it is cruel denial.

[HEyHEY]

13. What really pisses me off about that shit

Is that 50 per cent of them have a mental illness. These are people society should not disregard...but we do.