I made it to the middle of the month and posted every day. I don't know if I'll keep it up or not.
I like writing. I like sharing thoughts, ideas, books, etc., but I'm not sure if I'll keep it up. The idea of writing every day is a challenge for me. The real challenge is in trying to organize the scattered thoughts in my head into something that actually makes sense once I put the words together in written form.
Coming into the shelter tonight I was thinking about the great work that many people around our city are doing to help others. So much kind work and so many good deeds seem to go unnoticed by the news or by people in general. Bad news gets talked about, good news doesn't.
There are probably as many good people doing good things as there are jerks and dumb m/f-ers doing bad things, but we just never hear about it because good deeds don't make for good ratings. Maybe the real problem isn't with bad people doing bad things. Maybe it's with the majority of people being indifferent about good people and their good deeds and bad people and their bad deeds.
Maybe we (I) need to do more to share good stories and spend less time sharing or talking about the bad stories. I do this little thing about working in the shelters during the cold weather season. But the real work is being done all of the time - especially during the cold weather season. By the time I got to the shelter tonight, hundreds of meals had already been served by volunteers in our community and so much coordination between the different agencies and groups that try to organize the shelters and get as many people as possible into warm, safe beds on cold, wet nights like tonight.
Typing away on my keyboard while a few dozen people sleep isn't exactly difficult work. The difficult part of tonight's work was in having to turn people away or find an alternate place for them to shelter for the night. One man had been waiting outside the shelter for quite some time, but he didn't know that he needed to sign up to reserve a place here. He had to wait until the people that had signed up were in and then hope there were cots left. There weren't. His frustration and anger showed in his tears as he just wanted in out of the cold and rain, and to know that he'd be safe and warm for the night. We were able to find him a bed at another shelter and provide the transportation to get him (and others) into a safe and warm place to sleep.
The situation will repeat itself over the coming nights and throughout the winter as there are literally hundreds of people that will not be able to find shelter on cold nights. I think the indifference of our City Council is the major player in ignoring the growing problem of homelessness in our community.
This is what I mean when I talk about not having thoughts organized and just writing stuff. It might be better to just write it as I'm thinking about it rather than never getting around to actually writing something more well organized and more well written.
More unorganized rambling tomorrow.
John
Posts to Out of My Hat are just my thoughts on varied subjects from politics, religion, parenting, magic and life in general. Please feel free to comment on or share any of the material found here. Just note the source and, when possible, provide a link to Out of My Hat.
"more well organized and more well written"
ReplyDeleteDo you mean like a book?
Thanks for giving of your time to help others. I think if more people did this there would be more compassion for others in desperate situations.
ReplyDeleteHomelessness is rampant here in FL too, but at least its warmer for them.
Keep up the good work.
Liz
Mike,
ReplyDeleteNo, I don't mean like a book.
Liz,
Thanks. It is really a pretty amazing community of people - both those that serve and the people we serve.