Every Dot Connects

This week I made a friend. His name is Eddie.

I want to be very careful about how I write about me coming to know Eddie. And by referring to him as my friend, I’m voluntarily obligating myself to actually being a friend. It’s a characterization I don’t want to take lightly.

You see, I met Eddie on the street. Specifically, I met him on the sidewalk next to the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless, aka The ARCH. I met him when I spent one day with the homeless of Austin.

My other new friend, Alan Graham, introduced me to Eddie. They met each other on the street.

Eddie is homeless and can be found next to the ARCH, living on the sidewalk, outside of the resource center for the homeless in Austin.

Eddie is a real person. He worked at the Driskill Hotel as a cook for over twenty years. He grew up in Lubbock, Texas. I didn’t ask how it came to be, but it was obvious, that he went from working all his life to living outside the ARCH, where he is today.

How did Eddie end up where he is? Before this week, that’s where I would have probably concentrated my thinking. Not today.

I’m not tempted, as I might have been before this week, to figure it out. I’m more in a mode of acceptance that it is what it is. What I am not prepared to do is accept it as something that I can do nothing about.

I don’t know how, but I want to try and help Eddie find a place to live that has a door, indoor plumbing, electricity, a refrigerator, maybe even a television. He deserves that dignity.

I want to know more people who’ve ended up in situations like the one Eddie has found himself in.

Alan Graham has some ideas on how to house the homeless and to help them find a little dignity in the meantime. I’m going to see what I can do to support him in those efforts. If you’re interested, please follow our progress here and on the Mobile Loaves and Fishes blog.

~Mike Chapman