Maybe It's OK

I love running. I was able to go on this two-hour-long jog today, in the semi-cold, overcast, mid-November day. Lovely. Lovely has been the word of the week, too. I can't stop saying it...

Anyway, during this jog I met two guys named Albert. Well, Albert and Alberto. Both street guys. Both recognized me from somewhere (the Worker), and I had nice little chats with each of them. One of them comes into the house, but also volunteers mopping floors down at 701 Grand, my other job. The other one was walking and picking up cans along the bike trail I jogged on. I immediately realized how odd it probably looked to the other joggers and bikers that I was just chatting it up with this stereotypically-homeless-looking man (nevermind if he actually was homeless).

As I left that final conversation, I got to thinking about how to "fix" this society we live in. IHYC operates under the mentality that we should help people pick their lives back up, fix them, and help them re-enter into society as functioning members. DMCW operates under the mentality of creating a community within the context that you're in, and creating change on a very personal, very non-institutionalized scale.

Which is better? Which is...right?

Do you think it's possible that the life of a homeless person who is surrounded by friends is better, and I'm talking quality of life, not standard of living, than the life of a person who lives alone in a comfortable house in the suburbs? It's less about where you live and what you do, and more about who you're with and the purpose behind what you're doing.

Now, I'm not saying that we shouldn't help people achieve the goals they'd like to achieve. That's admirable, and we should do that. But I'm also saying that I don't think that life on the "underside" of society is really, necessarily, the thing we should be trying to fix. Why not help make life liveable and happy, wherever you are? And life with others is much, much better than life by yourself.

I think that's what we do. We make life bearable...and sometimes that's all you can do. And I hope today, somehow, I may have made life a little easier to live for a guy named Albert(o).