Comments on: Christmas Worship

By: smb

smb — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 18:21:52 +0000

think of it as my special gift to all of you. merry christmas

By: Kristine

Kristine — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 17:10:36 +0000

It’s true, Sam–you did make those of us who were into bathing regularly seem hopelessly bourgeois!

By: smb

smb — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 16:20:45 +0000

this has reminded me of the couple of times i was mistaken for a homeless person in Cambridge. Once I was watching a homeless friend’s things while he got some water to nourish a plant he had been given. i felt my humanity torn from me as I sank into his squalor on the sidewalk by the Unitarian Church along Mass Ave. As if color TV had been turned to black and white.
The other was when a homeless woman asked me for busking advice, but i was so obtuse it didn’t register for a few minutes, so finally invited her to breakfast to celebrate our moment of connection.
Kristine will remember–it wasn’t such a visual slipup to consider me homeless that freshman year of college.

By: Kristine

Kristine — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 04:14:18 +0000

jothegrill, I think that was what was most striking to me about my daughter’s response–she just responded in a human way. I’m not sure why it’s so hard to do that once we become self-conscious adults, but it is. We either demonize or oversentimentalize the homeless, and can’t see through our own guilt/fear/policy prejudices, etc. to notice that there’s an actual person in front of us.

One time while I was in college, feeling guilty about walking past homeless people on my way to my snooty little school that cost my parents (and me) a gazillion dollars a year, a homeless man asked for change. I rummaged through my pockets, handed him a crumpled bill and then burst out sobbing, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry,” and practically ran away. So he ended up chasing me through Harvard Yard, yelling “miss, miss, are you OK? Here’s your dollar–I don’t need it! Really, you can have it back…miss!”

I try to remember that when my thinking on the subject gets too abstract!

By: jothegrill

jothegrill — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 04:01:40 +0000

Thank you to everyone who is kind to homeless people. They are people too. One of them is my uncle. (He isn’t the kind that makes thousands of dollars.) He’s a schizophrenic and can’t live a “normal” life because of his illness. I am always touched when people show him kindness. Not necessarily giving him money, but just treating him like a human being. It means the world to me. We don’t know where he was this Christmas. I hope that somewhere a little girl whispered Merry Christmas to him for me. Thanks for this post.

By: MikeInWeHo

MikeInWeHo — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 05:15:41 +0000

Yeah, those 50k-earning homeless are a real blight on our cities. (Sarcasm Alert!)

By: anon

anon — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 00:27:11 +0000

This was a touching trip down memory lane for me. Newbury (or is it Newberry?) was always on my holiday shopping/looking stroll.

My favorite Boston panhandler was a woman that sat outside the T downtown main station. I’d see her when I connected from the Green to the Red-line to get to Cambridge, where students and young families were especially vulnerable to her pleas.

The Globe had a write up about her about 11 years ago. She cleared $50,000 then…

By: Sam MB

Sam MB — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 15:36:18 +0000

My homesickness just got worse. Thanks, K.

By: Kevin Barney

Kevin Barney — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 13:29:32 +0000

A beautiful Christmas meditation. Thank you.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 08:00:57 +0000

Kristine – your kids are amazing! (as is their mother!) Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas