Blog #13--Rolling Homeless Have Spirits Also

Blog #13 –Rolling Homeless Have Spirits Also, by Jack Tuttle http://dreamtime3.wix.com/jacktuttlebook

Our perspectives are influenced greatly by the events of our lives. If our only interactions with homeless people are when they are in our way or begging for money, we might have a rather negative view of them. But when even one of them touches our heart, it becomes possible to see the good within other homeless as well.

That happened to my wife Mary Jane and me shortly after we opened Insight Bookstore. That first summer, we heard someone outside calling to us. We looked out and saw a man who had been wheelchair-bound since birth. He had no money but wondered if we had any free materials he could read. His unassuming manner made us wish to help him in some way.

This first encounter led to a short but highly interesting friendship that benefitted us and him both. He was not similar to the homeless people described by propaganda experts. He never asked for any money from us, just a chance to learn and grow while struggling to survive. What we gave him was voluntary.

For example, Mary Jane cleaned his clothes for him one time. He was staying in a tiny room at a cheap motel since he was able to scrounge up $7 a day. He had no change of clothes, so he was nude until I returned with his clean clothes. He did ask us to keep some computer parts for him since he hoped to build his own computer once he got all the parts.

He was only occasionally able to prove the severity of his handicap sufficiently to qualify for government aid; it depended on the direction of political winds at the time. He described being able to live near a landfill in California thanks to a monthly government stipend for a couple of years. But he was removed from the rolls after he found an 11” black-and-white television in the landfill and got it to work. He was told he didn’t need government aid if he had his own television.

In our community, Henry (not his real name) was living a vicious cycle. He needed a job, but he needed to be clean, well-dressed and awake for the job interview. And he needed to go without food and shelter until the first two weeks of work were completed, and he could finally be paid. He had a couple job offers, but he couldn’t stay awake for the entire two weeks. Thus, he had to resort to more panhandling, where many more people cast aspersions on his character or hurled religious epithets than gave him a handout.

Once he had scraped together enough money, he asked me to drive him 90 miles to the train that would take him to Arizona and warm weather. We had a great visit on the drive over. Henry proved without doubt to be insightful, aware, spiritually evolved and a person with multiple abilities and absolutely no opportunity to use them except to survive the hardest way possible.

I insisted he take a $20 bill upon saying goodbye, but he clearly resented my offer. It is a good thing he took it because I found a couple dollars sticking out from my car seat on the drive home. Henry would not have had sufficient funds for the train ticket, but he wanted to give back to me for my generosity. Fortunately, on balance he was able to make the trip and avoid a cold winter.

About a year later, we heard from Henry. He was still alive, no mean trick, and he had found someone who would let him build his computer in a garage. So he asked us to send him his computer parts, which we did happily.

We haven’t heard from him since, but we imagine Henry earning many points toward spiritual fulfillment in his extremely difficult life. Despite severe handicaps and hardships, he allowed his good spirit to shine through. He enriched our lives and undoubtedly countless others during his time of struggle. Henry lives forever in our hearts.

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