How can we share the dream with everyone?
Another frosty morning, below freezing again. My dwarf grapefruit looks beyond recovery, which it managed to do last winter. Too cold to sit in the running car while the windows defrost (I'm not walking!), but too frosted to see to drive. I've lost my ice scraper.
I saw my two street friends, Lynn and Elaine, this morning in Oakland on my way to the office. Icicles, they were. I saw Lynn at the end of the work-day, too. She said that today while Elaine was away, Caltrans came and cleaned out the under-the-overpass camp and none of her friends saved her possessions: pictures of her son, her wallet, her sleeping bag, etc. All gone. When you barely have anything to call your own, what you do have is precious. When you live on the streets, better not to have anything precious.
Lynn has been camping out in an abandoned building, but last night some crackheads came and took over, "They're like roaches." Consequently she had been walking since 2am this morning. How does she manage to smile at the people who walk by, how does she manage a friendly conversation with me?
This evening the cold turned to cold rain. I bet Mt. Diablo will have a little snow tomorrow morning.
I spent my lunch hour today at the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration held in our office complex's auditorium. A modest but warm turn out. BART Director Carol Ward Allen gave a very personal keynote speech, recalling many important people of the Civil Rights Movement. Her speech and everyone's presence was a help to me, to be touched also, today, by the life and goals of the good Reverend Dr. King.
And so a prayer: May I always reflect the peace in my life, so that I might share the dream with you.
I saw my two street friends, Lynn and Elaine, this morning in Oakland on my way to the office. Icicles, they were. I saw Lynn at the end of the work-day, too. She said that today while Elaine was away, Caltrans came and cleaned out the under-the-overpass camp and none of her friends saved her possessions: pictures of her son, her wallet, her sleeping bag, etc. All gone. When you barely have anything to call your own, what you do have is precious. When you live on the streets, better not to have anything precious.
Lynn has been camping out in an abandoned building, but last night some crackheads came and took over, "They're like roaches." Consequently she had been walking since 2am this morning. How does she manage to smile at the people who walk by, how does she manage a friendly conversation with me?
This evening the cold turned to cold rain. I bet Mt. Diablo will have a little snow tomorrow morning.
I spent my lunch hour today at the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration held in our office complex's auditorium. A modest but warm turn out. BART Director Carol Ward Allen gave a very personal keynote speech, recalling many important people of the Civil Rights Movement. Her speech and everyone's presence was a help to me, to be touched also, today, by the life and goals of the good Reverend Dr. King.
And so a prayer: May I always reflect the peace in my life, so that I might share the dream with you.
posted by Kent at
9:37 PM
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