Tears on Lafayette

with out further "ado"....


making my way down the sidewalk, i gingerly shuffled towards the car. filling my lungs with the cold, crisp air, i began fumbling for the keys. she caught me off guard and softly said, "sir". i almost laughed. no one calls me sir except the people interupting dinner wanting "just a few minutes of my time" or the guy who takes my insurance premium. due to her skin color, i felt uncomfortable with that title as if we were in a 1950's backwoods town.

from what i could tell by her outward appearance, she was low income maybe even homeless. tattered and dirty. she asked if i knew where 480 lafayette was. we were a stones throw from lafayette but i had no sense of where that specific address was.

my mother has many wonderful talents but when it comes to geography and directions, well, she is challenged to say the least. genes are a mystical thing. i know where denmark is and can usually find north yet still get lost in my home town. guess mom is to thank for that. simply stated, i am terrible with directions. where was gps when i needed it? i asked her what she was looking for. she mumbled something, but it was not discernable. i asked again and tears began filling her eyes. speechless, i was speechless. she was crying. children cry when they are lost but adults should not cry over directions, should we? the unnamed young woman was crying and i looked around to see if anyone else was watching. i asked her how old she was (she seemed young). she sobbed and stammered eighteen. wow, eighteen. what was i doing when i was eighteen? certainly not this. i said that if she knew the name (something i still did not know), then she could contact by phone and receive directions. opening the car door, i retrieved the phone book stashed under the seat. she dried her eyes. together we fumbled through the pages eventually finding the place. she called and realized she was only a block or two away. thanking me she disappeared around the corner and down the snow covered sidewalk. driving out of the parking lot, i pondered if i should have given her a ride. it was not that cold out and she only had a short walk but would it have hurt to offer? what about food? i could have bought her something to eat. maybe she was not hungry or would not have wanted it? if i asked somebody for directions, what would i think if they offered to buy me a sandwhich? the nagging question, though, was why had she cried? being lost is not so bad. eventually one finds their way, right? maybe, just maybe, finding 480 lafayette was not the reason for her tears? could they be for something deeper than finding a building on a random winter day? was she crying because this is how life has been, so close but never able to find just what she is looking for.

for years now, i have worked with the less fortunate. first as a volunteer and now as a paid professional, yet i still find myself baffled. standing, often watching, trying to grasp why some people are born here and others there. this family compared to that family, this street, that neighborhood, one country verse another and so on. there is no answer and if it does exist, it's way to big for me to comprehend.

Coming Soon

you may find it strange that i have a blog page without any blogs. some of you have mentioned you have been checking every so often and waiting for the first entry. my strategy is to build a little anticipation. can you feel the excitement growing? it will be arriving soon. just have to be patient. remember, the sistine chapel was not painted in a few days.