I was at the laundromat washing blankets and quilts that are too large for my machine to handle at home. An older Jamaican man approached me and my grandson and offered us pieces of fruit.
My two year old grandson wanted to accept the fruit, but I sternly told him, “No. No-no!”
He appeared to be homeless. I was so busy examining his appearance and missing front teeth that I was only half listening to what he was telling me.
He realized this, gave me a toothless grin and gave me some parting words of wisdom. “You know,” he began, “when you take time to listen to God every day, you will learn about things that are about to happen in your life. You will know with certainty what path you should take. When you take the path he shows, no man will be able to stop you. ”
These words resonated with me deeply. That is exactly what I needed to hear that day. But it was from such an unexpected source that I almost missed it. You see, I had been wondering why I still had no clear idea of what to do next with my life but yet over the last two days I had blown off my morning ritual of meditating for 15 – 20 minutes.
Later I thought, Wow I was really frightened. My own biases of what homeless people are like had been horribly shaped by the media. I viewed the harmless old homeless man as a threat. I felt embarrassed about my expression of unconscious bias.
I had seen so many stories on the news about homeless people attacking innocent people and none about the good people who wind up homeless. Of course, I really do know deep down inside that all homeless people are not dangerous. Many of them are very good people who are experiencing misfortune or financial hardship.
They deserve to be treated with respect and dignity as a human being.
According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, two trends are largely responsible for the rise in homelessness in America over the past 20-25 years: a growing shortage of affordable rental housing and a simultaneous increase in poverty. Persons living in poverty are most at risk of becoming homeless. In the United States, homelessness is an undeniable reality that impacts people of all ages, ethnicities, and life circumstances.
Many factors can contribute to a person becoming homeless. These factors include (but are not limited to):
• Poverty
• Lack of affordable housing
• Job loss
• Lack of health care
• Mental illness
• Substance abuse
• Domestic violence
Sometimes its necessary to examine our biases to see how valid they are. Although I felt bad about my bias, I also realize that not all biases are a bad thing. Biases can help us make split second decisions that keep us out of danger. But many of our biases are based on feelings and not necessarily facts.
Am I going to engage every homeless person I meet? Most likely not. I will still use caution. I looked at this encounter as a reminder to me that life lessons can come from many sources. The wisdom we seek surrounds us everywhere, if we are only willing to listen.