Brokenness

It's all around us. From the homeless man I met on Sunday night who so affectionately referred to himself as "Alabama Slammer," to the guys that enter the Mish on a daily basis, to the truckload of people I get off the "T" with on my way to work who work downtown in the Financial District, there are many different pictures of brokenness that I encounter every day.
It doesn't always look the same. One man's garbage might be another's gold. My issues might not resemble the "Alabama Slammer's," but they're still issues that reveal, at the core, a need for some mending. The brokenness I most readily encounter, however, occurs at the Mish, and it embodies forms such as these:

* A knife fight that broke out and almost resulted in one of our clients being stabbed.

* A chair being thrown at a Mission staff member and cutting his head.

* A small (5'2") Hispanic guy leaping through an open door and swinging at a larger (6'2") African-American.

* A client leaving because he was in a relationship with another client.

* A man lying to Mission staff in order to get another fix.

* A man "escaping" into an alley on the way to an AA meeting, and disappearing from the group.

These are just a few real-life examples of the stark reality of the brokenness that plagues our city, and, more pertinently, our planet. These things could happen anywhere. It's not so much a question of where they happen or what they look like, but a question of how we respond when they happen.





*** I would suggest everyone reading John Mayer's latest blog entry, entitled "Under the (impression I can) influence (people around me)." It's pretty spectacular. I know Johnny is a big-time celebrity and all, but it's nice to know that some of them have brains and some self-respect. In this regard, he's a stand-up guy. www.johnmayer.com/blog ***