So today is MLK day and a holiday in most states but I still had to work. I parked in a metered spot today because of the holiday to save me a few dollars so that I could buy my coffee.

As I was staring outside the window, I see a homeless person walking by with his grocery cart and he started to check out the MINI. He stood there talking to the car and started to wave his arms and make sudden arm movements. He then walked around the car, still talking to it and his arm movements were describing the headlamps of the car.

I stared out the window for a good 5 minutes watching the homeless person interact with my car. He was quite respectful of the MINI eventhough he was real close to the car, he never touched it or peeked inside. :smile:

 

Where are you from? Sounds like some of the crazy people we have here in DC.

 

LOL thants great!!! I wunder what they were talking about...I am sure your mini gave him some encourgement......maybe he was once an engineer or somehting...I have met quite a few homeless folk...as I used to do "midnight runs" when I lived on the east coast...

that's when you rent a truck that is setup like the lunch trucks, spend the after noon making soups, sangwiches and gathering cloths...then you go down to the city for midnight arival and you give it all out...there was ussually about 13 people on the trucks...and there were times when 50 + people would come out of the wood work...it was amazing...and someof them were not what you would think...

anyway...sorry for the ramble...you should ask you mini what they talked about...

 

I find here in CA that the homeless people are really some of the nicest people sometimes. They enjoy engaging in conversation and are not out to harm anyone. Someone that works for me used to be homeless - slept on the streets, etc. etc. The stories she tells....

Chow!

Donna

 

You need one of those talking alarms so it could talk back to him!

 

I'm glad you all have good times with the homeless. In my area, the "homeless" are guys who ride the rails (we live across the street from a UP train yard). They are responsible for a lot of car and house break-ins in our area, smashing windows, etc. while traveling through. Definately not nice people!

 

Sometimes, when observing the homeless we have to understand they are people too... There really may not have been anything wrong with going over there and talking to him, you may have been really surprised. this reminds me of an email my mom sent to me last week. it is quite long, but for those who read these types of emails for the profound meaning, might want to take the time to read it and maybe pass it on. You maybe suprised how much an impact people you dont know can leave on your life.
:

"TO MEET SUCH A MAN"
>
>
>** I sat, with two friends, in the picture window of a quaint restaurant
>** just off the corner of the town-square. The food and the company were
>** both especially good that day.
>
>** As we talked, my attention was drawn outside, across the street.
>** There, walking into town, was a man who appeared to be carrying all
>** his worldly goods on his back. He was carrying, a well-worn sign that
>** read, "I will work for food." My heart sank.
>
>** I brought him to the attention of my friends and noticed that others
>** around us had stopped eating to focus on him. Heads moved in a mixture
>** of sadness and disbelief.
>
>** We continued with our meal, but his image lingered in my mind.
>
>** We finished our meal and went our separate ways. I had errands to do
>** and quickly set out to accomplish them.
>
>** I glanced toward the town square, looking somewhat halfheartedly for
>** the strange visitor. I was fearful, knowing that seeing him again
>** would call some response. I drove through town and saw nothing of
>** him. I made some purchases at a store and got back in my car.
>
>** Deep within me, the Spirit of God kept speaking to me: "Don't go back
>** to the office until you've at least driven once more around the
>** square."
>
>****Then with some hesitancy, I headed back into town. As I turned the
>** square's third corner. I saw him. He was standing on the steps of the
>** store front church, going through his sack.
>
>** I stopped and looked; feeling both compelled to speak to him, yet
>** wanting to drive on. The empty parking space on the corner seemed to
>** be a sign from God: an invitation to park. I pulled in, got out and
>** approached the town's newest visitor.
>
>** Looking for the pastor?" I asked.
>
>** "Not really," he replied, "just resting."
>
>** "Have you eaten today?"
>
>** "Oh, I ate something early this morning."
>
>** "Would you like to have lunch with me?"
>
>** "Do you have some work I could do for you?"
>
>** "No work," I replied. "I commute here to work from the city, but I
>** would like to take you to lunch."
>
>** "Sure," he replied with a smile
>
>** As he began to gather his things, I asked some surface questions.
>
>** Where you headed?"
>
>** "St. Louis."
>
>** "Where you from?"
>
>** "Oh, all over; mostly Florida."
>
>** "How long you been walking?"
>
>** "Fourteen years," came the reply.
>
>** I knew I had met someone unusual. We sat across from each other in
>** the same restaurant I had left earlier. His face was weathered
>** slightly beyond his 38 years. His eyes were dark yet clear, and he
>** spoke with an eloquence and articulation that was startling. He
>** removed his jacket to reveal a bright red T-shirt that said, "Jesus
>** is The Never Ending Story."
>
>** Then Daniel's story began to unfold. He had seen rough times early
>** in life. He'd made some wrong choices and reaped the consequences.
>
>****Fourteen years earlier, while backpacking across the country, he had
>** stopped on the beach in Daytona. He tried to hire on with some men
>** who were putting up a large tent and some equipment. A concert, he
>** thought.
>
>** He was hired, but the tent would not house a concert but revival
>** services, and in those services he saw life more clearly. He gave his
>** life over to God.
>
>** "Nothing's been the same since," he said, "I felt the Lord telling
>** me to keep walking, and so I did, some 14 years now."
>
>** "Ever think of stopping?" I asked.
>
>** "Oh, once in a while, when it seems to get the best of me.
>** But God has given me this calling. I give out Bibles. That's what's
>** in my sack. I work to buy food and Bibles, and I give them out when
>** His Spirit leads."
>
>** I sat amazed. My homeless friend was not homeless.
>** He was on a mission and lived this way by choice. The question
>** burned inside for a moment and then I asked: "What's it like?"
>
>** "What?"
>
>** "To walk into a town carrying all your things on your back and to
>** show your sign?"
>
>** "Oh, it was humiliating at first. People would stare and make
>** comments. Once someone tossed a piece of half-eaten bread and
>** made a gesture that certainly didn't make me feel welcome. But
>** then it became humbling to realize that God was using me to touch
>** lives and change people's concepts of other folks like me."
>
>** My concept was changing, too. We finished our dessert and gathered
>** his things. Just outside the door, he paused. He turned to me and
>** said, "Come Ye blessed of my Father and inherit the kingdom I've
>** prepared for you. For when I was hungry you gave me food, when I was
>** thirsty you gave me drink, a stranger and you took me in."
>
>** I felt as if we were on holy ground. "Could you use another Bible?" I
>** asked.
>
>** He said he preferred a certain translation. It traveled well and was
>** not too heavy. It was also his personal favorite. "I've read through
>** it 14 times," he said.
>
>** "I'm not sure we've got one of those, but let's stop by our church
>** and see." I was able to find my new friend a Bible that would do
>** well, and he seemed very grateful.
>
>** "Where are you headed from here?" I asked.
>
>** "Well, I found this little map on the back of this amusement park
>** coupon."
>
>** "Are you hoping to hire on there for awhile?"
>
>** "No, I just figure I should go there... I figure someone under that
>** star right there needs a Bible, so that's where I'm going next."
>
>** He smiled, and the warmth of his spirit radiated the sincerity of
>** his mission. I drove him back to the town-square where we'd met two
>** hours earlier, and as we drove, it started raining. We parked and
>** unloaded his things.
>
>** "Would you sign my autograph book?" he asked. "I like to keep
>** messages from folks I meet."
>
>** I wrote in his little book that his commitment to his calling had
>** touched My life. I encouraged him to stay strong. And I left him with
>** a verse of scripture from Jeremiah, "I know the plans I have for you,
>** declared the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you. plans
>** to give you a future and a hope."
>
>** "Thanks, man," he said. "I know we just met and we're really just
>** strangers, but I love you."
>
>** "I know," I said, "I love you, too."
>
>** "The Lord is good!"
>
>** "Yes, He is. How long has it been since someone hugged you?" I asked.
>
>** "A long time," he replied.
>
>** And so on the busy street corner in the drizzling rain, my new
>** friend and I embraced, and I felt deep inside that I had been
>** changed. He put his things on his back, smiled his winning smile and
>** said, "See you in the New Jerusalem."
>
>** "I'll be there!" was my reply.
>
>** He began his journey again. He headed away with his sign dangling
>** from his bedroll and pack of Bibles. He stopped, turned and said,
>** "When you see something that makes you think of me, will you pray for
>** me?"
>
>** "You bet," I shouted back, "God bless."
>
>** "God bless." And that was the last I saw of him.
>
>** Late that evening as I left my office, the wind blew strong. The
>** cold front had settled hard upon the town. I bundled up and hurried
>** to my car. As I sat back and reached for the emergency brake, I saw
>** them... a pair of well-worn brown work gloves neatly laid over the
>** length of the handle. I picked them up and thought of my friend and
>** wondered if his hands would stay warm that night without them.
>
>** Then I remembered his words:
>** "If you see something that makes you think of me, will you pray for
>** me?"
>
>** Today his gloves lie on my desk in my office. They help me to see
>** the world and its people in a new way, and they help me remember
>** those two hours with my unique friend and to pray for his ministry.
>
>****"See you in the New Jerusalem," he said.
>
>** Yes, Daniel, I know I will...

 

Thanks Itsdchz...I enjoyed that story very much :smile:

 

That was a good story.... :smile:

 

Oh don't get me wrong - we have plenty of gang activity that is responsible for the nasty stuff that happens around here...generally not the homeless..

Chow!

Donna

 

God Bless You Itsdchz,
I met a homeless man in Atlanta once. I was amazed at how ignorant I had been all my life about such people. He was nothing like what he appeared. Smarter than me, more worldly, and more in touch with God. It changed me too.

 

 

How do ya'll feel about:

1.) Homeless approaching you and asking for change at every block of your downtown city?
2.) Homeless bugging tourists at your downtown city driving conventions and tourists business out of your city?
3.) The smell of urine and any other foul smell when walking around your downtown area or any city that you visited. Or the foul smell of bad body odor when a homeless person walks right by you.
4.) Providing change to a homeless person but seeing him/her holding a bottle of liquor a few hours later.

 

I think a distinction needs to be drawn between homeless who are mentally ill and cannot keep themselves together, versus those that find a way to maintain themselves quite well, as well as their dignity.

Some homeless/street people are bottoming-out alcoholics, some are drug addicts, some are unlucky souls who've fallen on bad economic times. I don't think we can stereotype all the homeless based on a few aggressive no-goodniks. JMHO. :smile:

Clover

 

*political correctness mode: OFF*

He probably figured a car this small had to have came in one hell of a box. Now where the hell is that box! That'd be some fine livin'!

*political correctness mode: ON*

 

:smile: You mean like a JUMBO Hot Wheels box?

Clover

 

You got it!

Beats the hell out of a fridge box any day. By comparison, the car's box would be a (wait for it...)

CondoMINIum! *ba-da-boomp, tssss*

 

Thanks for the great story, Itsdchz.

 

GreyStreet,
Interesting observation. Maybe he was trying to get info on how to make his cart tricked out like your MINI? You know- Go Kart style. Or maybe he was just hallucinating.

Itsdchz,
Thanks for the story.

 

Better them than me. Obviously one can romanticize, vilify and/or make excuses for the homeless according to one's point of view.

 

1.) Nervous. (Seldom an appropriate response.) Just another of Gods children.
2.) There are more important things than money. What would impress me, as a tourist, is to see a friendly town where people made an attempt to help people in need or at least try to understand each individuals situation instead of taking a quick glance and labelling them as "bad."
3.) I would feel sad that a person wouldn't have a place to clean up and take a shower. That's part of the vicious cycle that is Homelessness. If you can't clean up, you can't get a job. It gets worse for them every day. Besides, homeless aren't the only people that smell bad. Ever been to France?
4.) Nobody would like that. But again, you may want to ask yourself what makes this person prefer being drunk. It's probably something so aweful you can't begin to understand it.

Have you ever bothered to speak to a homeless person? That is the only way to know their situation. Some are Angels in disguise, sent by God to test you. Some are not. You can't judge a book by it's cover, right? :smile:

 

There's a huge difference between Itsdchz homeless person who is on a mission (to be God's servants), persons who can't help themselves (the mentally ill), and persons who won't help themselves (the sloth). I admire the former, compassionate for the second and despise the latter...

 

Couldn't agree more, it's just easy to lump all homeless into "the sloth" category if you turn your head and keep going.

 

Heh. I one time had a homeless person come up to me and state that he was about a quarter short of a '40'. I couldn't help but to smile. I gave him a dollar.

Hey, honesty goes a long way! :smile:

-Paul!

 

That would be ALL of the Congressmen/women and 95% of the rest of the government workers?

(I know, I need another cup of coffee...)