Bells will be ringin' the sad, sad news, Oh, what a Christmas to have the blues. Well, to be honest, how can one not suffer from the blues at least once this time of the year? What should be in theory a joyous time as people from all sects celebrate their faith, always seems to come with a side of blues.
This time of year, stores are all about asking customers for denotations to the local food bank. People rummage through their closet in order to find clothing that either no longer fits them, or suits their fashion taste. Old toys, blankets, these are among the items that are donated. We truly are the people we wish we were the other 364 days of the year. Why we don't maintain this level of compassion for throughout the year is easy to explain.
I always keep two dollars at the ready. I keep it in either a jacket pocket or my pants pocket. And each jacket I own has two dollars in the inside pocket. There's a reason for this. I encounter plenty of people downtown that are homeless, or close to it. When I see one of them and they ask, I always have two dollars at the ready. Now, what they do with the money, that's up to them. It bothers me that others can walk by these souls as if they don't exist. As if these people aren't of any importance. These folks were once kids, kids with dreams. I don't think that any of them ever fathomed the notion they'd end up sleeping in the streets with so few options to go. These are human beings, and for the most part, we cast them aside as if they are second class citizens.
I really wish I could draw. I had an idea for a multi-panel cartoon. A man is walking down a busy street when a beggar asks him for change. The man, on his cell phone and feeling so self-important, walks by the beggar without even giving him a glance. Forty years later, Mr. Self-Important is in hospice car, his time on Earth coming to a close. Eventually he closes his eyes, and dies. He finds himself standing before St. Peter at the pearly gates. Now the man overall led a clean life, he didn't steal and is pretty clear of sin. He figures his entrance to Heaven is assured. St. Peter motions another figure over to stand next to him. It is the beggar the man first encountered forty years prior, and he hadn't aged. Confused, the man turns to St. Peter and asks "What is going on here?"
St. Peter explains that the homeless man was God, descending to Earth in human form. St. Peter explains that many of the beggars are the lord and his Angels, testing humans to see if they've really grasped the notion of compassion. To his horror, the man learns that he won't be gaining entrance to Heaven, for the compassion in his heart is not pure. In fact, the only time the man showed compassion was when it could benefit him. If the man gets a second chance or gets banished to hell, that would be up for the reader to decide, because the panel would end right there.
We have become so wrapped up in our own world that we pay little heed to the suffering of others. It's a struggle to deal with our own daily problems, this is true. However, we can always find time for compassion if we so seek. It baffles me that we're always at the ready to tear down an abandoned building to put up another generic store front, or high-priced lofts that can only be afforded by a few. There are many times low-income buildings or hotels are shut down and people tossed into the streets. And we get the usual dog whistle explanation. It's being done to curb crime. Another grand excuse is that the city is in need of a make-over. Which is clandestine speak for "getting rid of the poor".
I've often said "You best judge a society by how it treats those most in need". Well, I'm pretty sure our actions show we don't care about the poor and the homeless unless we can use them as props for our own gain. We need to change that way of thinking. We need to stop treating the poor and homeless as "throwaway people." For a society that seems to care so much about the fetus, seems to have no qualms about tossing them in the streets, denying them the social programs that could help them when they become young children or adults. Perhaps we should market them as "former fetuses"? Maybe that will spur the change needed to get these people the help they need to re-enter society and not just become productive members, but to be seen as human.
We're a country that holds tight to religion, yet we pretty much ignore every tenet of religion. However, strange enough, we have people in society that think nothing about perverting it in order to justify their own bigotry and hatred, even if that means playing fast and loose with text, or just flat-out making things up. As I stated earlier, you best judge a society by how you treat those most in need. And right now, we give those in need very little. I honestly believe if we lived life the way we do this time of the year, we'd have that ideal society we've dreamt upon. And the most wonderful time of the year would become the most wonderful time of our lives.
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