A Thanksgiving Tribute to People Who Give Their All Even When They Have Very Little
The path to homelessness is varied. For most people who end up without a safe place to live, the situation comes as quite a devastating surprise. The initial time spent shuffling from street corners to sofas to hotel rooms is so shocking it’s almost numbing. For those who have never endured life as a homeless person, the mere thought of it is unimaginable, a picture they’re simply not capable of painting.
So, the media attempts to paint the picture of homelessness for outsiders. But they do so with a narrow brush that cannot fill all of the crevices. They snap shots with a camera lens that has limited zoom. And in the end, the view is one dimensional at best.
According to most major media outlets, homeless people fall into one of three categories: the criminal, the victim, or the invisible entity. However, in truth, homeless people are human beings who do not belong in figurative or literal boxes. The uniqueness of their situation creates a world wherein many different attributes exist at the same time, even when those attributes contradict each other or challenge the perpetual narrative at large.
Homeless people are both vulnerable and strong, victimized and capable, criminalized and innocent, seen and also willfully ignored.
When you turn the page to read about them, their stories are all too often translated by people who have never themselves endured such unthinkable conditions. For this reason, too many homeless truths get lost between the lines of victimhood, criminality or silence.
Not today.
Today, we celebrate acts of kindness and bravery as performed by our neighbors without walls. Today, we learn that there is a major difference between having a big home and having a big heart. Please relax and start your morning with these inspiring tales of homeless people teaching humanity how to be human yet again.
Meet Chuck and Ron. A Homeless Man Changes Tires for Strangers and a Formerly Homeless Man Now Gives Back to the Community.
A small café in Utah became the talk of the town on Facebook when a picture capturing a homeless man changing a strangers’ tire went viral. The man in the photo, whose name is Chuck, is often seen sleeping in the grass of a local park in nearby Ogden. While his childhood was a traumatic experience that included molestation and jail time served at the tender age of 7, Chuck has been working his way through the pain and finding peace in the quaint Utah café called Jessie Jean’s where he regularly cleans floors, helps customers, and performs random acts of kindness.
When asked in an interview what makes the café such a special place, Chuck began to tear up.
As it turns out, Ron Davidson, co-owner of Jessie Jean’s is formerly homeless himself. After enduring the unsheltered homeless experience for more than two years, Ron decided to dedicate his life and his business to helping fellow homeless people and the community at large. Behind his cozy kitchen brimming with Italian cream soda and house-made bread pudding, there lies a message of acceptance, and a mission to bring forth positive change. Here in Ogden, two homeless stories collide and the end result is a positive atmosphere for all who venture by.
Meet Jay. A Homeless Man with a Heart of Gold Turns a Social Experiment into an Unexpectedly Inspirational Moment.
When multimedia influencer Waqas Shah set out to conduct a social experiment regarding what a homeless man’s reaction would be to finding a wallet full of wads of cash, he probably did not expect to meet Jay, a generous man living homeless with his pregnant wife. Upon discovering the wallet, Jay made every effort to return it, along with the $2,000 cash inside, to its rightful owner. With zero knowledge that the cameras were rolling, Jay called after Waqas and alerted him to the fact that he had dropped his wallet.
Waqas Shah turned back and questioned Jay, “Are you homeless?” and Jay responded with an affirmative nod.
Moved by Jay’s noble act of honesty, Waqas Shah offered him a cash reward. At this point, the story was already one to pull tightly at the heartstrings. But that was only the beginning. Jay followed up his act of honesty with one of kindness and generosity when he decided to spend his reward money buying food for fellow homeless people. To the pleasant surprise of the hundreds of thousands of viewers who watched and shared the video online, Jay’s reasoning behind his selfless acts was simple.
“Giving back is what you do,” he explained.
Giving back is something all of us should be thinking about; particularly when we see our neighbors living without the security of their own homes. Remember that the person most likely to give you the shirt right off their own back is often the person who is walking around with no shirt right now.
Kindness is not synonymous with wealth. In fact, poverty and loss can create unparalleled empathy and a kind of selflessness that only comes with experiencing hardship.
Let Us Not Forget Michelle James, Julian Price, and Many Other Homeless People. These Individuals Volunteered to Help Homeless Animals in a Kingsport Animal Shelter.
Owners of the Kingsport Animal Shelter believe they were “divinely inspired” when they hypothesized a scenario where homeless people came together to comfort homeless pets. That thought became a reality when they launched a pilot partnership with the Hunger First Organization.
Their pilot program PETWORKS was a massive success.
Countless members of the local homeless community took the initiative to sign up for the program. They pitched in by comforting the animals and undertaking a wide variety of chores necessary to the shelter. Among them were Michelle James and Julian Price. These two expressed their undeniable love for animals and their hopes to continue participating in the program.
Special Thanks to all the Invisible People Authors, Both Presently and Formerly Homeless. These Individuals Have Been Brave Enough to Share their Stories.
One of the most overlooked forms of kindness is that of giving education. Many of Invisible People’s writers who are currently and/or formerly homelessness sacrificed their own privacy. They let their guards down, and selflessly shared their personal tales of tribulation. The goal: to keep the public informed about the true story of homelessness. If you really want to know more about homelessness and the homeless community, you now have a resource, a diary of sorts, to refer to in your search for truth, thanks to authors like:
Key Takeaway
Homeless people are people too, but beyond that they are also:
- Kind people
- Generous people
- Hard-working people
- Moral people
- Courageous people
- People who deserve to live in homes
Talk to your representatives about ending criminalization and creating affordable housing situations for all. For if the roles were reversed, many homeless people would do this for you without even giving it a second thought.
