RE: Nowhere to Sleep: Kicked Out by the House of God
Institutions are rarely where to go for help, in my experience. People are often kind, and even generous. Institutions have policies, and rules, and the hapless employees either follow them, or join the homeless.
A couple days ago my neighbor in the trailer park picked up a hitchhiker, and then had to just drop her off at his house. His wife wouldn't tolerate the hitchhiker in their tiny trailer.
It was about to start raining, so I offered her a place to crash, until the rain ended. She accepted, and slept on my sofa.
All hell broke loose. The neighbors all started talking, and the landlady sent me a nasty text about transients, and that she had to leave, immediately. I pointed out I could have guests, for up to 14 days, and that was that.
The next day the landlady and her biker husband came storming over, after we had come back from the grocery store. The hitcher and I went over to the office after putting away the groceries, and she gave them her name, and they chatted a bit.
Everything was ok after that. When you can reach the people, rather than the policies, people help each other out. The landlady even gave her a list of local resources for homeless folks, so what had set her off wasn't the person, the hitchhiker, but her rules she had to follow.
I despise institutions! LOL
People, well, sometimes I can tolerate people =p
The lack of empathy always surprises me in others. We are all just people - but homeless people and people in crisis are so often treated as "other."
You are right about institutions - I volunteered at a soup kitchen once and they forced the people there to attend a church service before being able to eat. I always thought that was garbage - you should help people because you genuinely want to help them, not force them to listen to a religious service JUST TO EAT FOOD as a some kind of misguided attempt to introduce them to religion.
This!
I am a poor man, but despite that - maybe because of that, actually - I share what I have, because I have been more poor, and in need before. I do not want others to go hungry, or be cold and wet, as I have.
It is humane, the very definition of our nature itself, to help folks in need. Institutions are not humane. They, by definition, are inhumane.