I can’t think of a witty title

The man sat on the slim peninsula of land that divides East Parkway.  He held a tattered cardboard sign, I was too far away to read it but I knew what it said.  “Homeless and hungry”.  I had seen the man often, always slumped against a pole holding his sign.   There were three cars ahead of me at the intersection where the man sat.  I had just taken a bite out of my breakfast biscuit when the light changed.  Suddenly cars were moving and I found myself cranking my window down and handing the man my breakfast as I drove by. Giving the man my food wasn’t a choice.  It just made sense, I had food but he didn’t.  I watched him as I drove by and noticed things about the man I had never seen before.  My eyes darted, first to his arm as he reached for the food.  The man labored to move his right arm towards me, even though his left side was nearer to me.  I then saw his left arm hanging limply by his side.  As I observed the man I noted the two strands of saliva hanging from his beard.  He turned towards me and mumbled his thanks, his words slurred and slow, as if the sound  was being stretched as it left his lips.  He smiled a crooked smile, exposing his swollen and bleeding gums.  His eyes are what really jarred me.  The brilliant blue orbs seemed to move in slow motion and out of synch as he turned look at me.  His eyes never quite met mine, the milky blue of his irises was made more striking by his yellow sclera (the “whites” of the eye).

As I drove away, the things I had noticed about the man coalesced in my mind.  I am a scientist and will be a physician eventually.  His lack of left sided movement, slurred speech and drooling are all indicators of damage from a stroke.  By smiling the man revealed what is most likely the manifestation of a lack of vitamin C and other essential nutrients.  Though we usually associate scurvy with pirates, it can and does occur among the elderly and alcoholic, even in America.  His eyes were striking both for their beauty and for how much they spoke about the man’s life.  The milky white covering that somewhat veiled the blue of his irises could be cataracts, or a manifestation of a malnutrition.  His yellow sclerae are almost certainly a consequence of liver disease.  

The man’s very countenance revealed much about his life.  The man is destitute and ill, in need of medical and possibly psychiatric care.  The cold reality is that it takes time, often a long time, for a person to develop the problems the man with the sign had.  As I continued my commute I kept thinking “this isn’t right”.  No matter what vices this man was facing and no matter how many poor choices he may have made, the man, and all people, deserve a second chance.  All people should have the right to proper medical care.  Proper medical care doesn’t stop after treating the symptoms.  Proper medical care considers the whole person and combines medicine, pastoral care, counseling and social work to heal a person rather than a disease.  

I arrived at the research hospital where I work wondering, with sadness and indignation rising by the second, how many people had passed by the man without noticing or without caring.  Wondering how many times I had averted my eyes as I passed the man.  Wondering how many more people were in the same position as this man.  

I don’t know how to fix a society where people are left behind, ignored, abused or oppressed but I do know that I can do something, however small, to help people in need.  There is something that unites all humans.  If we truly love each other and respect others in the way many great philosophers have described (Martin Buber’s “Ich-Du” or “I-Thou”, Buddha’s teaching about respect for all living, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s call “for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one’s tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all mankind” or Jesus’ commandment to love one another are all examples and expressions of the same idea) we will be able to see and strive to ameliorate the problems in the world.

“Strange is our situation here on earth. However, there is one thing that we do know, we are here for the sake of others. Above all, for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends. And, also, for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy.” Albert Einstein

Seeing the problems in the world is sometimes disheartening but as Dorthy Day said, “No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There is too much work to do.”

I gave the homeless man a meal and in return I received a jolt that lifted me from a growing complacency and redoubled my commitment to do whatever I can to make things better.  

One last thought to this very long post: 

The United States has spent $600,361,401,515 on the war in Iraq.  Just think of how much good we could do with that money.  Instead of “defending ourselves from our enemies” through war (which only creates more enemies) we as a nation could become a powerful force of good in the world.  

Just think of how many schools could be built or improved in the US and the world or how many millions of gallons of clean water could be provided to those who need it or how many medical clinics could be supplied and staffed.  The possibilities are endless…