And God Bless the Man

So the other night I was driving Jaxon to his swimming lesson after work. We were sitting in the car at a stop light and a homeless man was walking along the sidewalk with his sign. Jaxon was watching him out the window and asked me, "Mommy, what is that man doing?" So I told him that he was cold and hungry because he didn't have a home (his sign said - I wasn't making assumptions here). He pondered this as we pulled off (we were a lane over and were only there a few seconds or I would have given him some money). Then he asked "Why doesn't he have a home?" So I told him that he didn't have any money for a home because he didn't have a job. I explained that that was why Mommy and Daddy go to work so we have money to pay for our home and cars and clothes and food, and that that was why we prayed each night for Mommy to keep her job and Daddy to find a new (daytime) job. So we said a prayer for the man "God Bless the man and help him find a home and a job.

I thought that Jaxon had forgotten about this as 3 year olds are apt to do. But apparently it had made a significant impression on him since tonight at bedtime he piped up all on his own at the end "God Bless the man and help him find a job and a home." Melted my heart and almost made me cry that at 3 he is already learning to feel compassion and concern, even for strangers he has never met. I just hope he doesn't worry now about our jobs or that we might become homeless like the man we saw. We are pretty financially secure and have families that would help if we ever needed it. I just never thought I would begin to teach him these lessons until he was older but he seemed to grasp it ok. I guess we will need to start involving him soon in some volunteer work, even if it is just taking some food to the food bank or clothes to a shelter. When he gets a little older I would like to start taking him to volunteer at a shelter once a month or so too.

Anybody else do any charitable or volunteer work with their kids? Ideas? Comments?

Adopt a Homeless Person?

Why not? I read Tony's blog start to finish and will continue to read it. Got me to thinking again. I have never been one to begrudge a homeless person some change. So what if they use it to buy a beer? I like a beer now and then too. Just cause their homeless they can't have a drink? So you're contributing to their habit. They don't have much else in life and chances are they aren't going to ditch the habit anytime soon. Don't want to give change? Ask them if you can buy them a coffee or lunch. And take some time to sit down and chat with them. These are PEOPLE. And most of them don't have much happiness, hope, friendship or love in their lives. Spread a little. Especially if you have all of the above in abundance.

When I worked at Starbucks on “The Ave” (University Way) in Seattle in college there were 2-3 older guys who were regulars out front. We had to dump the coffee each hour and brew fresh and we always filled their cups first before dumping and gave them the leftover pastries at the end of the day. Wasn’t much but we liked those guys.

So now I live in Central Oregon and we don’t see that many homeless on the streets, but there are some and some local shelters. I really need to check into doing more. But I was also thinking that it would be nice to start an “adopt a local” kind of thing, especially in bigger cities. I often refrained from dropping coins in big cities because in a few blocks I would see so many and I couldn’t make up my mind which cap to put it in. But what about “adopting” someone you pass by frequently, like the gal who makes Tony sandwiches, and Phil who hosts Tony's blog and has befriended him, and like we did back in the day at Starbucks? But make it an actual campaign with some real reaching out and friendship involved. Get to know the person. Invite them to dinner or to stay the night on occassion (I mean really, if they have hung out on the same corner for years and you see them everyday, the chances of something bad happening are slim).

At the very least pass on your extra clothes to them, or backpacks and other gear when cleaning out the closet, or just buy something on sale you think they could use. Wish I had more time to organize something like that.

Thoughts?