i went to no bucks cafe this morning again. i got my coffee and sat down. i haven't been very chatty the last couple of days. i think the weight of trying to deal with finding a job and keeping a temporary roof over my head at nite is taking it's toll on me. but this too will pass. i was looking around at the faces there this morning. there weren't many missing. but something i did notice were the new faces. lately more and more have been popping up. some old, some young, some in between. these are the ones i worry about. some of these were just out of jail. some were from out of town. some were new to the homeless situation. some were fresh out of housing first...they didn't make it. but they all had something in common. they weren't tired. they weren't on the brink of giving up. they weren't beaten by the cold and weather yet. they didn't have that look. these are the ones i worry about. there's still time for them. before they realize that this isn't a week long adventure, before they realize that finding a job isn't as easy as it used to be, before they realize that help isn't a call away, before they realize that 2015's new year's eve resolution could be to get out of this situation...before reality hits home. i started thinking about homelessness and the progress and lack of progress we as a country are making on this problem. it may very well be too late for my generation. but it's not too late for the next one. what we do today will have an impact and could very well prevent my grandchildren from having to deal with and debate and try to solve homelessness. what we do today may prevent any new faces from entering nobucks cafe. what we do today may prevent another child in the future from knowing what hunger and poverty is. what we do today may prevent another life from being wasted due to our inability to turn our attention to a problem in our own communities. i hope so.
when you're thinking of your goals in 2014, try to make ending hunger and homelessness one of them. however small or simple thing you can do to help could very well on a collective basis be the missing formula to ending them both. remember the homeless in 2014 and think of your children and grandchildren. hopefully by the time they are grown and make their own resolutions one day, ending homelessness won't be one of them. like pollution, war, political turmoil...homelessness should be a plague we become determined not to hand down to the next generation. it should be something we resolve ourselves to fighting, finding a solution for and ending. let that solution be a legacy we leave to our children.
be safe.
see you around town