second lunch

this saturday started off great, i saved over 25% with my bargain shopping at the grocery store. i have come in under budget both saturdays.

i got to the place i normally go to meet folks, and it was fenced off and the sign i had posted on thursday night was torn down. my hope in this little experiment was dashed. apparantly, the buildings that border the vacant lot are being redeveloped, and they are kicking all the homeless people out of the area.

so i drove around and handed out lunches at a few of the places i knew people gathered. i ran in to shawn again and he was happy i remembered his name. i also met his friend brenda, and they were both drunk. it was 1:00 in the afternoon. they appreciated the lunch and i am glad i ran in to shawn again.

i drove around for a while seeing 1 or 2 people that i thought needed a lunch, when i offered them a lunch, some were confused, some were happy, and some weren't homeless! oops. i hope they weren't offended, i just laughed.

i had about 15 lunches left over as i approached a scary part of town. it was the middle of the day and i feared for my life rolling in to this place. i saw a lady stumbling her way on the sidewalk, and got out to give her a lunch, and there were about 50 people that started coming for my car. i knew i didn't have enough lunches, so i was wondering what was going to happen when i ran out. were they going to get nasty? they didn't, they just walked away wishing they got something.

i saw something today i haven't seen very much of before. people in need. people with kids, people with mental problems, people who were hungry, and people who were hopeless. these are the east side people. on the west side, i feed drunk homeless people that are happy, and easy to be around, and funny, and dramatic, and the kind of people i normally hang out with, they just have a different address and a different wardrobe.

the east side people were different. i felt different around them. i felt scared, and hopeless. they swarmed like insects in the desert on a fresh kill until all the meat was gone, and when it was gone, some went away hungry. it was really a hopeless place.

i don't know if bringing lunches gives them any hope, or makes any kind of difference, but something was different over there. i don't know what it was, but i felt different. i felt out of place, threatened, and somehow that was a good thing.

i am still going to stop by and give shawn and brenda a lunch when i see them, but my new location is on the east side.