My Drinking Buddies

The other night, Stephanie and I did our usually Monday routine of going to Moore Square Park, handing out sandwiches and talking to people who hang out there. Most of these people are homeless. We do this every week and the people down there know us. They greet us as we walk up to them, we hang out and talk for about an hour, and at some point we hand out about a dozen sandwiches. Stephanie and I used to each eat a sandwich ourselves, but somewhere along the line the demand for the sandwiches eventually greatly outnumbered how many we would bring (We make really good sandwiches).

This past Monday night was interesting. As soon as we got there, Stephanie separated from the group to play in the leaves with a young girl. I was left standing in a circle with about 10 guys. One guy had a case of Ice House and started passing them out to everyone. Within a few seconds I was the only one in the circle without a beer. The man with the case noticed this and said, "Wait. Chris, I forgot about you. Did you want one?"


In just a fraction of a second lots of thoughts raced through my head:

Is it even legal to drink out here?
It has been a rough day at work. I could use a drink.
If I was with any of my other friends, what would I be doing right now?
I've had beer and wine with homeless guys before.
Am I pretending to be somebody I'm not when I'm down here?
I've tasted fresh moonshine in Uganda.
Why not?

And that's exactly what I said. "Why not?" The guys got a good chuckle out of this, and I felt this strange sense of community with the group as I drank my beer. There were all kinds of comments thrown out in the circle:

"I wasn't going to smoke in front of these two out of respect for them. I thought they were from a church or something."
"No, this guy is always drinking down at the Raleigh Times."
"Yeah, I've seen him there with my brother."
"Chris, man, now you know you're going to have to chip in next time we collect."

I began to realize that apparently there are eyes on the street, as well as embellishments. After that, things got a little weird. Someone pulled out a joint and some of them started passing that around. I also noticed money exchanging hands for something small that I suspect were drugs. These things never happened before, but somehow my status had instantly changed. They weren't ashamed to do anything around me. But oddly enough, they would still apologize to us after cussing, even while accidentally blowing smoke in my face while doing so. By the time we left, Stephanie and I smelled like we had just come from a Willie Nelson concert.

It's been a few days since this experience and I still can't decide how I feel about it. I have my own thoughts ranging from, "I'm an idiot," all the way to, "I should bring a case of beer to pass out next week," but I'm curious what others think. So if you've read this far, please make a stance on this issue and post a comment.

News From Our Shoes

As time goes on, I am realizing that more and more of my friends are homeless. Not that my friends are losing their homes, but I am spending a lot of time chumming around with guys who live out on the streets. It sometimes makes me cringe when people call these friendships part of my ministry. These guys have become my friends and they are part of the life I am enjoying very much.

There are some remarkable people who stay down at the shelter. I wish more people would get to know some of them, as there is so much to learn from some of these guys. I'm really enjoying how Ricky's story is coming along. If you haven't been following it you should. I suggest reading the oldest post first and going through it backwards.

Ricky

Another interesting website done by a homeless man is News From Our Shoes. Michael Watkins is a fascinating guy who is attempting to bring news relevant to the homeless to Raleigh. Michael has a vision of creating an entire news broadcast around this concept. Can you believe that? There's a man living down at the shelter with a website that gets about 1,000 hits a day, who wants to produce a television news broadcast. It sounds unbelievable, but he is closer to achieving this goal than you'd think.

I took some pictures to help these guys out. They are looking for close to $1000 in sponsorships in order to take some broadcasting courses. I could use a better camera, but I still think these are pretty good.

Michael

There is a meeting about Raleigh's 10 year plan to end homelessness on Thursday (12/11). It's at 9 AM down at the shelter. I'm debating whether or not I should take off work to go. There's a poll on the right margin of this page. Please chime in.

The Last Lecture

I recently finished a book called "The Last Lecture". It was an incredibly short and simple book, but the story behind the book is impacting and amazing. My mom gave it to me for my birthday earlier this year with the instruction of passing it on.

Randy did end up dying over the summer, but not before touching millions of people with his story. There will always be those people we foolishly want to believe "have it all figured out", but I really think that Randy at least had something figured out. I don't know what it means to "have it all figured out", but to accept an early death with satisfaction and contentment sounds like a good start. We can all learn something from someone so secure in his outlook on life. I'd like to think that I could stare death in the eye without fear or panic, but I somehow doubt it. Unfortunately, none of us will ever know what we're really made of until we come face to face with the inevitable. We just hope that we'll be ready when that day comes.

If you can't read the book, at least watch the last lecture that inspired the writing of the book.