Every so
often, there are little snapshot moments that almost perfectly encapsulate what
street work is like. A couple of
weeks back, I was walking up to the day shelter in 10-degree weather, carrying
a backpack full of socks, another bag of socks so that I didn’t run out, and a
bag of winter hats. I was wearing two coats, a hat and gloves and a scarf to
keep the winter chill at bay. I
was also limping because of a minor but annoying foot injury.
I took a
breath, said a prayer, walked into the day shelter with all of this stuff, and
I no sooner walked through the door than my glasses completely fogged up and I
couldn’t see anything. I could
still hear all the voices and ancillary noise of a chaotic day at the shelter,
made all the more jagged by the cold weather, but I was essentially blind.
I took off
my gloves and tried to wipe my fogged-over glasses on my shirt, meanwhile
dropping various things on the floor as I stood in the middle of the chaos with
little idea of what was going on around me, except for the young man who was
telling me that the care given to the older man who had ultimately died the
night before in the overnight shelter had been poorly managed. I was trying to respond to him, while
simultaneously attempting to pick up dropped gloves and still wiping at my
recalcitrant glasses.
I finally
gave up on the glasses, shoved them in a pocket, dropped the extra socks I was
carrying and tried to get my blurry bearings in the middle of it all. The young man continued to talk about
the night before, and other folks were coming up to ask for socks. I bent over, picked up the bag of hats
I’d dropped, fixed the young man with a blurry gaze and asked him if he’d mind
giving out the hats to those who might need them. Hey stopped speaking and his face seemed to light up. “Sure,” he said, and he happily
wandered off to distribute the hats.
I was trying
to open bags of socks to give them out, when someone said “Hey, Pastor, you
dropped your glove,” and he handed me my glove, disappearing before I could
thank him.