the man without fixed domicile holds my humanity in his empty hands

we passed david - the man without fixed domicile - at trader joes earlier. and i do mean passed. i scooted by, knowing i had been asked to take a compassionate moment & still couldn't help but to notice his rugged and sun wizened hands below his hung head. they needed to be washed. he mumbled something, likely not expecting much notice or response, and my discomfort grew as i kept walking. then, as i was walking ahead of jason, i paused at the entrance to tj's and looked at david again for a long moment. he was sitting yogi style and it occurred to me he might be a Saduk. i wondered if he might need a loaf of bread or some bologna. he wouldn't be able to refrigerate that bologna (even if they had bologna at TJ's to offer) so i discarded that idea. perhaps david prefers to be gluten free? unlikely, though i didn't break my apathy to ask. i had been pointed his way by my teacher and spiritual guide local medicine man William Schindler (author of 'gay tantra' and founder of the humble ashram west). still we went about our errands without pause. then a strange thing happened: we had passed david again as we left TJ's with pockets stuffed with food on our way to the copy shop & as we placed our food items in our white chariot curbside, a man walked passed David and approached US with a quarter in hand. "do you mind giving that man a quarter?" he asked us. We were doubly confused but jason took the quarter and continued packing things in the car. "that's for him, not for the meter" the man said jokingly & we nodded affably in agreement. and finally the man said "whoever is kind to the needy, honors himself". coincidence? i don't think so. i like the idea of working individual by individual, so here we are with one. anything and everything we can do to help humanize the situation both for david and for those who are dehumanized by perpetuating the dehumanization of others (ourselves) will be helpful. it is not only his patterns, but perhaps more to the point our own patterns we'll have to change. the practical work of contacting service providers and asking for help helping this man is a good pragmatic course. i also like the 'table theater' concept to further tell the story of the man - a story we'd have to learn and then tell (or perhaps sing) in order that our neighbors might learn more about the man they pass so regularly on the way to and from the bounty of TJ's. i thought to add 'ho-o ponopono' a spiritual practice from hawaii that has proven very effective in remote healing processes. i can teach you all the tune to the chant but the essence is 'i love you, i'm sorry, please forgive me thank you thank you'. we could all begin to do this with him in mind as part of our personal practices. wanna help? lemme know. more to follow. x