What if God were one of us?
A few times a year I make up a big pot of beans and franks and bring it down to a soup kitchen for one of the regular "Community Meals" that are held nearly daily in one church basement or another around town. (All the local churches take turns cooking and serving and cleaning up and three different churches host the meals in their fellowship halls.) Most of my church members stick behind the counter, but I like to bring my family and go eat with the people who come to these for dinner. It's always illuminating.
Today we sat down to eat with Jose, Pablo and Steve. All three of these were streetworn men over 50 years old. Each came by himself, and their stories were pretty similar. Jobs went away. I spent the entire dinner hour asking them what they would like to be changed about our small town.
#1 was jobs. There are no factory jobs, no plug-in-a-man-at-a-machine jobs. No lathe work, no milling machines, only a few tap and die jobs left in a town that claimed pride of place for being on Hitler's list of "industrial towns to be bombed". These men have no skills beyond the ability to show up and do a job that they can be trained on. THOSE jobs are gone.
#2 was affordable housing. One of them lives in a subsidized place that I know is being renovated and he says he's afraid he won't be able to afford to live there after they fix it up too nice. The others nodded. Liberal sensibilities about the necessary standard of living price very poor people out of housing. It's a troubling issue and I need to think about this more.
#3 was things to do in town. They bemoaned the lack of a pool hall or bowling alley, or pretty much anything to do if you don't drink, which they Don't (said in a resolute Friends of Bill sort of way.) I pointed out that we had regular bands outdoors on Thursday nights at the downtown park and Saturday mornings on the Common. They said that we should have more street music and the downtown businesses should put their awnings out more to shade the sidewalk and protect them from the rain. I got to wondering if we should maybe do some sort of permitting process and carefully encourage busking in town. I sort of like the idea. I also wondered why we don't have a bowling alley? WTF, when did THAT go away?
When the meal was over someone asked me for a ride home, since she'd "heard" it was on my way. Well, no, it was something like 8 miles out of the way. Actually, more, since she didn't know where she lived. She was essentially homeless and squatting temporarily with someone this week and she honestly didn't really know how to get there. This was made harder by not remembering the street name or which way to turn at one point, so it turned into a bit of an adventure. But B. and I were of good spirits and happy to help and it was interesting chatting with her. She was another one of those women of a certain age with no family and no skills. In her case she seeks out house-sharing gigs with other single women who could use a little cash for a little while of having a room-mate. She appears to wander a bit. Sometimes those who wander really ARE lost. I got the impression that being lost was pretty much her normal status quo and she didn't really mind or notice it. B. called her a "special snowflake" after we got her where she was going, but I don't think she was. I think she was just one of those people who isn't very high functioning but is otherwise perfectly pleasant. She'd be wonderful in a family setting. But she has no family. Sigh.
I felt like I went to this thing in disguise. I wore a stained sweatshirt and drove my 14 year old minivan (that has a failed inspection sticker on it.) But I listened to these people talk about what they want changed in this town and I gave it serious consideration. I was talking to someone this afternoon about his business plan for a manufacturing business. My husband was at a business launch today with our Congressman. I'm going to talk to the mayor about busking. I'm on the group charged with renovating downtown buildings with residential units. I doubt Pablo, Jose and Steve will ever know how much influence they had tonight.