Surviving The Fall, 19

I am thinking of the last words of an ex-friend. This was in 2008, when I was checking in with various friends about their plans for Christmas, because I was alone and upset about being alone and isolated. All my so-called friends bailed on me and she had the nerve to tell me that she doesn't feel sorry for people who feel sorry for themselves and that I have to accept that I am alone in the world. Of course, I promptly ended that friendship, and only with words and acts of repentance from the others were our relations reasonably restored. But I also want to focus here on this nonsense that you are alone in the world. This is the most hateful language of capitalism. It is the language of Margaret Thatcher: "There is no such thing as society", that we are all alone, isolated individuals who have to somehow find their way through a cold, cruel, nasty and competitive world. This is pure Darwinism, with the influences of the Industrial Revolution. This is also unfortunately a really hard fact of life. When I am out on the streets I notice homeless individuals begging or sleeping on the sidewalks or in doorways, while other folk are busy getting on with their lives in the local restaurants and coffee shops and bars. We have grown used to the homeless. We have become accustomed to seeing homeless people suffering on our doorstep. We don't like it, I hope. Many of us are still upset and outraged, but really, what can we do? Yes, we can share money and food and stop to talk with anyone who would welcome our incursion, but so much is still beyond our reach. Our governments say they are addressing homelessness and that more housing is on the table. The process is slow. And the damage has gone on for so long thanks to previous governments and selfishness and greed of Joe and Jane Average Citizens, that it will be decades before this crisis is resolved, and so much of that is going to depend on the political will of future administrations. We are all interdependent, whether we like it or not. We rise together and we fall together, and when we go about our small daily lives pretending that it doesn't matter, and that their lives and sufferings touch us not at all. Oh, but they do touch us. When we shrug and walk away we end up hardening ourselves just a little bit more, making ourselves less kind and less human. And more fearful. Cue the angry shouts of local burghers when they demonstrate against shelters or housing for the homeless in their lovely neighbourhoods and the impact on their darling little mouth-breathers as well as their cherished property values. Especially their cherished property values. And there is of course the primal human revulsion that we experience when we're exposed to suffering in others, especially if those others are ill, addicted, distressed, crying, dirty, and smell bad. I believe strongly in repentance. Not just because I'm a Christian, though that certainly helps. I believe that repentance is an underwritten concept in most of the major faiths, and even among the atheists and the agnostics among us, there is still the need for repentance. Not necessarily to change our belief systems, though that might also be called for but simply to get the stone out of our hearts, to receive tender, live, beating hearts of flesh. This is not easy, and it is going to make us vulnerable to others, not only to our families and friends and loved ones but to the stranger in our midst and this is where we need to direct our focus. I cannot solve our homelessness crisis. Indeed, I usually can't even give money away, especially this year, given how much Canada Revenue was wanting from me (and if any of it is going into housing then they are welcome to it). I can help by reminding myself that the homeless on the streets are people in crisis and that I was once there myself, and only by the grace of God have I been pulled out of it. I can help but simply making eye contact, saying hi, acknowledging them. Learning their names and telling them mine. Being poor myself, I can only share myself, but maybe sometimes that's the best that can be done.