To Come Alongside. . .

Persistant hunger & homelessness create a disease of the spirit called hopelessness. . . I just got off the phone with a man who lost his "pay by the week" trailer when he came down with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a potentially deadly muscle disorder that slowly paralyzed him to the point of breathlessness before it retreated as it came, leaving him helpless like a baby - he had to learn to walk all over again.

My husband and I advocated for him and took care of his son during the two and a half years that the disease ran it's course. We didn't do it as a "foster parents", paid by the state, We did it because we Happened to be visiting when the doctor gave him the prognosis and there was no reason we couldn't help. That was six years ago. We have continued to offer friendship and support to Big John, a shell-shocked Vietnam vet, who already suffered the effects of Agent Orange, and Little John, who was drunk in the womb as his mother was a transient alcoholic (who however bizarrely, came in and out of his life until she died in a tragic fire on Christmas day of last year.)

Big John has become one of my best friends. He's the one who is willing to lay down his life if I or my husband need anything he can offer. He has endured unbelievable hardship with courage and dignity. He says that I'm the "brains" of the outfit and calls me regularly to help him navigate through the seemingly endless swamps and raging rivers

And now, Big John is wading through the most challenging crisis of all - his son is in jail and he stands to lose his home all over again (the apartment complex won't allow "felons", and Little John is accused of trying to sell almost a pound of pot.) Little John has Alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder that precludes him from having the patience or focus to read this paragraph. His short attention span, hyperactivity, poor impulse control, extreme nervousness and anxiety along with the predisposition to alcohol addiction have hammered him throughout his childhood and now he stands to lose any hope of a "normal" life.

I read this and recognize how incredibly depressing it is. But I think this may be another battle in the war that we are called to wage. How do we collaborate to re-wire society and transform the vicious circle into a virtuous circle? How do we transform the conversation of "the powers that be"? While there are more than many social and govermental agencies who are engaged in these problems, we found very few "outside of the system" to mentor us. . . I am wondering what it looks like, on a grassroots level, to create a open learning platform for real-world community.