Gritty Streets

In a few weeks, we will host a party for the families of skid row at one of the two local parks. On a daily basis, these parks are full of transients, and it is not uncommon to see them congregating at the tables, playing chess, sleeping, or any of the things you might imagine (and a lot of things you’d try not to imagine) a homeless person doing at a public park.

What is uncommon to see at either park is children. We throw our party at a park rather than our facility so that for one afternoon the park becomes what it should be – a safe place for children to play.

To get approval from the agency that manages the park, I decided to walk over to their office, which is just a few blocks from our center. These few blocks comprise some of the most dangerous sections in skid row – in fact when I first starting working in skid row I was told to avoid one of the streets entirely. And on that gloomy gray day I thought about how seldom I had indeed walked in this direction. I was painfully aware of how much I stuck out like a sore thumb and regretted that my slightly too long pants dragged on the ground of what others might call a “gritty street.”

I also remembered why it is I ever chose to work here.

I am a person inclined to agonize over the what-ifs, should-haves and the could-have-beens of life. Beyond that, I am also the most pessimistic person I know and in some seasons of my life I believe I was recognizably tortured. But all of my demons – my quarter life angst over how my life is going to turn out – seem pretty frivolous walking down a street as gritty as San Julian.

To look a homeless woman directly in the eyes, smile and say hello knowing she has slept on the streets for quite some time is good for my soul. Even more healing have been the precious friendships I have built with the amazing families in our program – not born out of some sense of condescending pity, but instead out of reciprocity. Other days I might say I choose this work out of some larger conviction for social justice or to live out Matthew 25... and that wouldn’t be entirely untrue.

However, I know I have gained far more from this wonderful community than I have ever given.

JH