Towards the end of the month more people come to St. Joes for a meal. Today over 130 were fed in some way or another. Like the changing of seasons the end of the month means people's subsidies have dried up and they're on the move, looking to eat. Before they are let into the dining room many wait in the hospitality room where they can watch tv, sit and read something or if there are chores to be done, they can take a shower--we give them towels, soap, shampoos and conditioners, razors, body lotion or they can wash their clothes. Usually everyone is respectful of the process and we don't need to intervene; if someone wants these services they sign up and I pray one woman doesn't occupy the washing machine and dryer for three hours until lunch is served though if it does happen it doesn't seem to bother anyone, if a man takes off all his clothes in the shower and comes out with only a towel, we intervene before the catcalls and howls. Most of the time the atmosphere is generally calm, in a calm chaotic way. The room can take a clubhouse mentality when the men play a style of dominoes that require the slamming of pieces on the shaky plastic table. The tv can be quite loud, and with the fans whirring and the room filling escaping to the outdoors is tantamount.
Perhaps the hardest element is the challenge to remain relevant among a population where I really don't have much in common:
Vinny: Hey you wanna play scrabble? Sure, no wait, I can't spell.
Bob: I wanna go back to school but they want money. College should be free.
John: What do you want to study?
Bob: I don't know but I don't wanna come here anymore for food.
Joe: What's the book you're reading?
John: It's about an anthropologist in Yemen who is recording tribal poetry.
Joe: It's a miniseries now on cable or something like that?
A conversation I couldn't help but overhear:
Ali: You ever been to Italy?
Jane: No, but I'm Sicilian.
Ali: So that means you support Mussolini?
Angry man: Can I have a bag lunch?
John: So, you're not going to be here at 11:30am?
Angry man: That's none of your business.
John: It is my business, for the bag lunches are for people who aren't going to be here for lunch at 11:30.
Angry man: That's none of your damn business what I do with my time. $#@ you can keep your $#@ bag lunch.
Frank: (in a wheel chair, lives in the 20 story tower one block south of St. Joes) "...so this guy has a car and for 17 years he's never had a problem with it until last week and he...(he begins laughing) and his starter dies...hahaha, just like that, man, his starter isn't that the funniest thing you've ever heard? Haaahaa, his starter...
I don't know what exactly was humorous in that story but I tried to be sympathetic and offered a yodel to show I understood. Most the time I'm in the hospitality room I try to be as hospitable as I can but conversing with them is hard. Many don't wish to talk at all. There's a fella who comes in every morning when we open the doors, gets his coffee with three heaping spoons of sugar and looks just like Billy Bob Thornton and when I told him who he looks like he just smirked and said, ok. Another young fella came in and wanted me to keep his plastic martini glass safe behind the counter.
Ray: "I used to have a problem drinking but now it's just a beer once in a while.
John: So, the martini glass is strictly for orange juice?
Ray: Hey that's a good idea
If it is God's will for me to stay here for longer than a month I need to somehow keep my head in the game. And this afternoon, after Sister Grace from the House of Mercy came and did the service with her choir filling the dining room with holy gospel howls I thought I could counsel these men, I could find a way to reach them, but it would take something only a Tibetan Buddhist would understand, not a Catholic Worker and I don't know if that'll ever happen.
"You can take anything considered bad, and make it good. Ganji, for example, has tremendous power. If your heart is right, and your intentions are pure, you can use it for great power and compassionate uses." (paraphrase from handbook read in a Darjeeling monastery)
Perhaps the hardest element is the challenge to remain relevant among a population where I really don't have much in common:
Vinny: Hey you wanna play scrabble? Sure, no wait, I can't spell.
Bob: I wanna go back to school but they want money. College should be free.
John: What do you want to study?
Bob: I don't know but I don't wanna come here anymore for food.
Joe: What's the book you're reading?
John: It's about an anthropologist in Yemen who is recording tribal poetry.
Joe: It's a miniseries now on cable or something like that?
A conversation I couldn't help but overhear:
Ali: You ever been to Italy?
Jane: No, but I'm Sicilian.
Ali: So that means you support Mussolini?
Angry man: Can I have a bag lunch?
John: So, you're not going to be here at 11:30am?
Angry man: That's none of your business.
John: It is my business, for the bag lunches are for people who aren't going to be here for lunch at 11:30.
Angry man: That's none of your damn business what I do with my time. $#@ you can keep your $#@ bag lunch.
Frank: (in a wheel chair, lives in the 20 story tower one block south of St. Joes) "...so this guy has a car and for 17 years he's never had a problem with it until last week and he...(he begins laughing) and his starter dies...hahaha, just like that, man, his starter isn't that the funniest thing you've ever heard? Haaahaa, his starter...
I don't know what exactly was humorous in that story but I tried to be sympathetic and offered a yodel to show I understood. Most the time I'm in the hospitality room I try to be as hospitable as I can but conversing with them is hard. Many don't wish to talk at all. There's a fella who comes in every morning when we open the doors, gets his coffee with three heaping spoons of sugar and looks just like Billy Bob Thornton and when I told him who he looks like he just smirked and said, ok. Another young fella came in and wanted me to keep his plastic martini glass safe behind the counter.
Ray: "I used to have a problem drinking but now it's just a beer once in a while.
John: So, the martini glass is strictly for orange juice?
Ray: Hey that's a good idea
If it is God's will for me to stay here for longer than a month I need to somehow keep my head in the game. And this afternoon, after Sister Grace from the House of Mercy came and did the service with her choir filling the dining room with holy gospel howls I thought I could counsel these men, I could find a way to reach them, but it would take something only a Tibetan Buddhist would understand, not a Catholic Worker and I don't know if that'll ever happen.
"You can take anything considered bad, and make it good. Ganji, for example, has tremendous power. If your heart is right, and your intentions are pure, you can use it for great power and compassionate uses." (paraphrase from handbook read in a Darjeeling monastery)
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