Across the street

across the street
Originally uploaded by Greg Blosser.

When it's cold, people without homes tend to congregate in the alcove of an empty building across the street from my office. Sometimes I invite them in for coffee. Sometimes I offer to buy lunch. Sometimes I just go and talk with them. Sometimes I don't know what to do.
For a while I had these two friends, we'll call Jimmy and Johnny. They were from the street. They say that they're brothers, but after a few weeks they told me they were lying. I use to take them to lunch and they would occasionally come to church. Once I offered to put them up in a hotel for a couple of nights. It was cold and rainy and they had no where to go. Well, they could have gone to a shelter, but the shelter will only take sober people and Jimmy and Johnny weren't very good at staying sober. While at the hotel Jimmy and Johnny made long distance phone calls and watched adult movies on pay perview. It was expensive. It was charged to our account. What a metaphor. The next time I saw them they were defensive and embarassed about having taken advantage of our kindness. I was just disappointed. After that they didn't really want to come back to church or hang around much. I wish they would. Johnny use to play my guitar after the service was over, and Jimmy and I use to talk about wrestling (we were both high school grapplers). It has probably been six months since I've seen either one of them. I think they're ok. They've been at the street living thing for about 15 years now, if that part of their story is accurate. So they know just how much to do to get by, even though they aren't much interested in getting better. Another metaphor. Maybe they'll come around again when it warms up.