the houseless class-ifying the houseless ..

there's this guy
probably young-20's
whenever i saw him he was stoned senseless
riding his bike and slamming into walls
pausing to rifle through a garbage can ..

he, in particular, caused me to wonder how i could ever be of service to someone like that ..
how do i even communicate with someone who's not even mentally here ?

yesterday he was around when i opened the doors at 4.00 a.m.
a rest-place for street people
a place of warmth and food and sleep-if-you-want
of safety from the dangers of streetlife

and for the first time i got to have a cognisant conversation
even though he was struggling somewhat for sentences

i welcomed him

and then
another houseless person arrived
and began to scold him
told him they could see he was high
" just sit down and relax, man "
.. right in the middle of my talking to the dude
actually interrupting me

i did not pay attention to it
difficult as that was
i tried to keep him engaged
allow him to speak
wanting him to feel comfortable and relaxed in the face of his normal experiences of people's regular dislike and disgust at him

allthewhile the other person was making it more and more difficult

i said something, finally, and the accuser's response was that if he was going to be staying there, they were leaving

i moved into the kitchen to attend to a couple things
and by the time i returned the guy i had been talking to had left

....  ..   .

there's stratification among the homeless
even houseless people rank themselves
look down their noses at the other houseless as lessthan, lowerthan ..
the other

it's not just a matter anymore of society as a whole segmenting
stratifying
creating classes of uppers and lowers
the houseless themselves class-ify

what's with that ?

i was enraged
for a while

i lost an opportunity to be there for someone noone wants around
a druggy
a thief
dirty
lost in some drug-induced otherworld
needy
o, so needy

and i had a chance to be there for him
and allow him some space to be

i pray he'll be back

and somehow
someway
i have to defend the right of every person
each person
to be
even as they are
even when they're the lowest of the low

they're people too

..

reminds me of a statement Jesus made
' inasmuch as you did it to the least of these
you did it to me
for me '

the least of these ..

i need to be there for the least of these