Ray was a bit late coming in this week. He didn't see me behind him and we almost collided - all 6 feet and 2 inches or so of him! And he was going a million miles an hour! Even in the heat! Full of apologies for being late he told of a couple of men who have died recently of overdoses. Men we have all talked to, men that you might have walked past on the street without a second thought. They were drug addicts. What does this mean though in terms of how we respond to others?
The roots of compassion are to suffer with.
com patior. To suffer alongside those who share this earth with us. This dusty dream. And yes, this past week Joe Fiorito commented about our work in a column Zooming in on city's homeless. And then he floored me by writing A snapshot of a life left behind. Thank you Joe. For your support and for just tagging along in your gentle, observant manner. Joe writes with such compassion. And patience. Another word that is related to compassion. I say patience because I believe it is a necessary quality that we need when we are looking at these problems and their solutions. We need patience but we also need action. We need to be patient when those with nothing are frustrated by a system that is eternally blocking their every attempt to be productive in their own lives. More on this later...