This morning, I get on my bicycle at 8:45 and ride through the cold crisp air to meet Jim at the CVS to pay for his hypertension medication. He was introduced to me yesterday at our regular Sunday Morning Breakfast.
He and I were to meet at the CVS at 9:00am. By 9:30, I gave up on him, but only after standing in the cold for half an hour. That Jim was not there when we agreed to meet is no reflection on his character, per se. When you are homeless, time is a fluid concept. He got out of the shelter at 7:00 or so this morning and so it is quite possible he sat outside the CVS from 7:30 until 8:50 and then gave up on me.
Or maybe he found someone to hand him $4 cash yesterday after we talked. Or maybe he forgot.
In any event, there are countless ways to have made the project called “Get Jim some drugs” more efficent. Off the top of my head:
- Have a volunteer take him yesterday to the 24 hour pharmacy and pay for his drugs.
- Have a $5 CVS giftcard in my pocket
- Agree to meet him this morning at the shelter and take him to the pharmacy.
- Develop a prescription drug program.
- etc.
Any of those would have been more efficent and, in fact, more effective at the project called “Get Jim his drugs”.
But that is not the project I am working on.
Instead, I am part of a project that could be called “Let’s Get to Know Jim”. And all relationships involve deliberate inefficency.
When you meet a friend for lunch, you do not go to the place that promises you the most efficent souce of high quality calories – instead you go to the place that makes hanging out with your friend the easiest. Things like quality of food, how fast the kitchen is and even cost take a back seat to things that make it easier to spend time with your friend. You are not working on the project called “Get Maximum Calories at the Best Price”. You are woking on a project called “Hang out with Mike over Food”.
So, the project called “Get to Know Jim” took a hit this morning. It cost me a half an hour in the cold and fleeting frustration. And occasionally, on days like this, I am reminded why the projects other people are working on are the ones they are working on – because the relational way is hard and inefficent.
That does not mean it is wrong, however.
