My wife Sam and our 11-year-old daughter Penny came home this week with a surprise: a homeless man. The temperature had dipped to -10 and was plunging toward -35 the next day (with a wind chill of -58!)
Sam and Penny had spent the previous hour driving around looking for homeless people that had not been able to get indoors. At one point they saw a man curled up in a sleeping bag. They asked him if he had a place to get warm. No. So they invited him home to stay with us until the weather warms, thereby likely saving his life. (Another man was rescued by our friend Mark and rushed to the hospital just before he froze.)
Our city’s homeless shelter is understaffed, another emergency shelter not ready yet and another group home closed. Though the city’s been planning for months to meet the challenge of a growing homeless population, and though winter happens every year, still we barely averted a crisis and only because of people like Sam and Mark.
Sure, such generosity takes some courage. But if Penny can joke comfortably with her new homeless friend across the dinner table, couldn’t more of us muster the courage to offer a kindness to a stranger? I’m sure some folks will condemn us for not being more suspicious, but that is simply not the kind of people we wish to be. The world you see around you is a reflection of who you are. We firmly believe in the goodness of people. Though of course some are really sick, we’ve yet to meet a single homeless person who causes us fear.
The cold snap is not over and we may yet hear that someone was overlooked and died. If so I expect many will wish they had done more. Our new friend Loren, 58 and disabled, will still have to climb back into self-sufficiency, but with a few days of respite from the cold world and some needed documents, his chances are much better. And through this interaction our family not only gets to know an interesting new friend, but is given twin priceless gifts: meaning and happiness. Generosity, for its great rewards, is really not that hard.
