Every year since 2010 I’ve done a series of December diaries focusing on a variety of seasonal topics ranging from music to food to ugly sweaters. (Full disclosure: I did ONE Seasonal diary in 2008, and 2009 was the first December K2 was with us so I was a little distracted :-)). It’s time to do it again! Don’t worry if Christmas isn’t your thing- while my personal December perspective is primarily secular but culturally Christian-based with a vibrant dose of earth-centered Winter Solstice mixed in because Unitarian Universalist, these diaries are NOT meant to be siege locations in the War On Christmas. In other words, if there’s a holiday in December that makes you happy, that you mark differently than all the other days, or that involves negotiating about who brings what food… or even if there isn’t... this is a place for you!
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So far we’ve looked at Charitable Traditions, and Seasonal Music. Normally I’d have a third easy topic, light and fluffy like the stereotypical Christmas Eve snowfall that every Traditional Christmas is supposed to have. But my mind is still focused on a 20hr program I attended last Friday night → Saturday afternoon, and it’s changing how I look at the season. I’d like to share it with you tonight. If you’re in a hurry, head down to the *TL;DR* for the take-home, but I do hope you’ll read through.
Common Cathedral Boston is a nondenominational street ministry holding weekly Sunday outdoor worship in ALL weather conditions for the unhoused in Boston. Once monthly they run the City Reach program, which brings in high school and college youth groups to experience via direct interaction the lives and stories of formerly and currently unhoused persons. I attended with eleven members of our youth group and three other adult chaperones, joining about 60 other people from five groups. For weeks prior to attending we asked for donations of warm clothing, toiletries, and duffle bags/backpacks/anything for people to carry their belongings in and we brought all of that plus food for the communal lunch on Saturday to the City Reach site, a large church on Boston Common juuuust to the right of that tree in the picture and facing the Boston State House.
We gathered and after an introduction by one of the ministers heard the stories of that month’s Staff, all of whom are current/formerly unhoused men and women. Staff get to sleep inside and have breakfast/lunch with the program. Their stories were wrenching to hear, and dispelled every stereotype that exist about those experiencing homeless. They were NOT lazy; many have paid jobs and all of them must spend hours each day waiting sometimes hours in advance for food, or a chance at a place to sleep indoors, or for assistance in the bureaucratic nightmare that is finding permanent housing. They are not all drug/alcohol addicts, although some are.
After hearing their stories, we broke into smaller groups and spent an hour walking the streets of Boston with one of the Staff as a guide. We saw where they slept, where food could be found, where it wasn’t safe, etc. We learned that Boston actually has a lot of resources for the unhoused; one of our guides listed where to get a hot meal every weekday. What is lacking is affordable permanent housing. After returning back to the building, we slept on the sanctuary floor from 11:30pm-6:30am, which the Staff told us is at least an hour later than most shelters force people back onto the streets for the day.
Bright and early Saturday we packed up our stuff, ate a quick breakfast of cereal and milk with coffee or hot cocoa, and set to work preparing all of those bagged donations into a ‘bazaar’ for our unhoused guests to shop for what they needed. Each guest received a ticket in order of their place in line (some were waiting as early as 4:30am for a 9am opening just to secure a “good number”) and were able to choose one each of underwear, socks, shirt, sweater/sweatshirt, pants, and jacket. They also could take a bag of toiletries, a backpack/duffle/bag and received a bagged lunch. Each youth group had a particular area- we were men’s clothing, the busiest area, while others staffed women’s clothing, food, accessories, etc. We had one hour to set up before the doors opened.
In just over three hours, we helped over 300 men and women (and a few kids, which broke my heart) find items that fit. Sometimes we didn’t have what was needed, and that was hard. But when we did, it made us feel really good. Another stereotype is that the unhoused will ‘take whatever is given’ but please consider whether the torn, paint-stained shirt is something you feel appropriate for another human being to wear. Universally, people wanted to look, in their explicit words, “normal”. To be able to blend in and NOT be targeted for harassment. To go to work, or to the library to log into Facebook and see how their children living with relatives are doing. I will never again donate an item of clothing that would cause people to stare or made judgements if I wore it.
I easily could ramble for another six paragraphs on what I learned through City Reach, and I do hope you’ll ask questions in the comments. I’ll do my best to answer.
*TL;DR* I know this has been a loooooong diary, and I thank you if you’ve made it this far. If you’ve jumped to the punchline, welcome :-). After this experience, what I really want to ask each and every one of us is “On December 24-25th, where will YOU be sleeping? What will YOU eat?” I will be grateful for my warm house, my abundant food, and the family who will be joining us. I am NOT concerned with whether presents are perfectly wrapped, or even if I’ve gotten “enough”.
So: Where will you be sleeping this night, week, month? Where and what will you be eating, and with whom?
I am blessed to have my collaborator in chief BeninSC to help with tonight’s formatting of what you visit this community for- the trio of Top Comments, Mojo and Pictures that keep our diary series going.
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Highlighted by CanyonWren:
Is this comment by BlueSue, reaming the nominal ‘leader’ for criticizing what he can’t begin to comprehend, our system of government.
From BeninSC:
I am nominating this comment by Cali Scribe, from last night’s Top Comments diary. CS makes a point that I have appreciated as long as I have been interested in politics! Land can’t vote! The rest of the comment is good, too, and I do hope it gets the diary it deserves.
Highlighted by bear83:
Is this fine comment by strangerthanfiction, decrying a supposed similarity between the Obama administration and the CURRENT catastrophe.
Top Pictures
2017-12-19, courtesy of jotter!