They Are Valuable – Because They Exist

One of our volunteers and I were talking the other day, and he mentioned how it seemed every single guy we knew that lived on the streets was not only a veteran, but had been in “Special Opps”. No kidding – I had one guy tell me, with a straight face, that he had served in Delta Force with Chuck Norris.

Or there is the guy I know who is always carrying paperback books by intellectual authors – but I am pretty sure he has about a fourth grade reading level. Or the conversation I had with Martha right before she died, where we talked about Jazz musicians. She made it a big point to tell me about the artists she had seen in person.

If you spend much time out here at all, you hear about the hot ex-girlfriend, the car they used to own, the job they used to have or the college they went to. In other words, they want you to know that they are special.

“I just want you to know – I am not like these other guys out here. “

I have heard that line, or some variation of it, hundreds of times. I used to think it was a hustle. But I have come to see it for what it is – a cry for respect, a way to scratch out some way that they are unique, while living in the midst of people society says are all the same.

Even more than they want housing, more than they want jobs, more than they want the fundamental right to take a shower or decide when to use the toilet, my friends who live outside want their dignity. They want to know that they matter, that they are not a wasted life. Despite the fact that society gives them their leftovers (leftover food, leftover clothes, leftover time), they want to know; they need to know that they are not leftover people.

In the Judeo-Christian story, we are told that humans are made in the very image of God – that we all hold something of the Divine in us. Whether we mean Mr. Slocum the bank president or Blind Willie who lives under the bridge – we all bear the image, the imprint of God. This means we probably owe an apology to Blind Willie for the way we treat him.

Dignity is not something we grant, but something we recognize in each other. But first, we have to be willing to see that the person living under the bridge is special – not because he was in Delta Force with Chuck Norris, but merely because he exists.