Adventures with the Homeless

About six weeks ago, I decided to start trying to go to weekday Mass at least once a week. St. Patrick's Church is a few blocks away and they have Mass at 12:10 daily. It's been easy enough; last week was the first time I didn't go at least once. I went Tuesday this week. There were a couple of homeless people there, which is pretty typical. If you've ever been to DC, you know we have a lot of homeless here. And they tend to roll pretty thick when it comes to church attendance. But I had never seen either one of these people.

There was a woman, probably in her 30s, applying makeup and drinking an unidentified black substance from a Mountain Dew bottle. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a new flavor. She commented on Mass the whole way through. A couple of high points: during the homily, the priest mentioned marriage. She screamed out "Sorry honey, I'm not married!" and then corrected him a few minutes later, blurting out "Sacra-MENT" after he used the word sacrifice. She was entertaining. Went up and down the entire center aisle during the peace be with you handshakes.

Bruce was wearing a "Hello! My Name Is Bruce" nametag. He was a little slow, but very friendly. When I was kneeling after Communion (I like to call it "gettin' my pray on") he came over and asked how I was. Being a polite Midwesterner, I said I was doing great and asked how he was. He held out his hand, so I went to shake it, and he started to move closer, indicating that he was going to 1) hug me, 2) kiss me, 3) steal my iPod, or 4) all of the above. It was just a number 1, but an adventure nonetheless.

Apparently it's a very common thing to put a giant inflatable rat out when you're striking. I never knew this. At 11th and G, there'sd a group of (I think) construction workers striking with a massive inflatable rat in the back of a pickup. I had never seen this until this week. It's awesome. I urge anyone nearby to check it out.

So today I was walking down the escalator to the tracks on my way in. As I went to get on the train, a homeless guy points at my head and says, "iPod?" I said yeah, and he proceeds to whip out an iPod video. Some guy sat in a seat with him and got a 15-minute demonstration of its capabilities. This entire sequence puzzled me.

On a serious note, it is troubling how many homeless people we have in this area. Homelessness has become the only answer for many people and families in recent years as income inequality and costs of living have increased at a far greater rate than wages. Contrary to popular belief, the overwhelming majority of these people are not "lazy," but have serious mental or physical disabilities and nowhere to go, or have been forced out of their homes because of rising costs. Please do what you can in your community to aid these people often in dire need of help. It doesn't matter where you live - this issue is everywhere. Check with your local government to find resources and offer your assistance. Your one hour a week might save someone's life.