And This Is Why I'm

My morning's read was on homelessness in NYC. While a long read, it was an enlightening one. The struggles on connecting, the patience it takes, the understanding and consistency of workers (saints on earth, I'd call them) and the lives of the ones being helped. We group the homeless together but each is different, even as there are, certainly,  similarities. 

Look beneath their homelessness and we see dysfunctional families, bad luck, and grief compounding tough times to make for awful times. We see people in lives we can't imagine trying to stay alive, live and wanting a better life, even as their choices hurt them for that. But, they continue on. 

And while the conclusion was on homelessness and the people living with it, I also saw middle school students and the people at my school working to help them, with a listening ear, a helping hand, and a belief that it can get better. Little consequences made me concerned and made me question, but from last year's students who fought the system, to this year's who - so far - are engaging and doing, I am becoming a believer and less a skeptic.

Whether homelessness or struggling young people, it takes times, effort and compassion. 

May we find it in ourselves as a society to help all, as, it seems, we did the vets.

A New Yorker Fan