Rousing Rambling

While on a business trip in California, I witnessed firsthand the problem of homelessness.     I arrived after a six-hour flight to the city of Los Angeles and took an Uber from the airport to the hotel in Santa Monica.     The curious tourist in me was taking in all of the sights on the drive, familiar store brands, banks, and other companies with familiar names.     I was trying also to spot differences, different cultural influences, and so much more in that brief ride.     Before long though, a sad reality struck me.   What I noticed not too far out of the Los Angeles airport was the large number of homeless lining the streets in gray tattered blankets.     Sometimes you could make out the person’s body, sometimes only a lumpy blanket.     Even in Santa Monica, there were many homeless in the streets.     At night, walking along the Santa Monica beach and pier, every few hundred yards was another homeless per...

July 6, 2015 Rosa Parks Circle, Grand Rapids, Michigan 38 th Convention of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians Public Concert with the Cortez family   While sitting in Rosa Parks Circle, in Grand Rapids, MI, attending an outdoor concert by Jaime Cortez and family, I watched a homeless man take his place at my side with a tin container of spaghetti and another container of some other food.   Clearly, one or two of the hundreds of people in attendance at the outdoor event had given this man food to eat.   As he sat there eating the spaghetti with his hands, he seemed to be content.   He was clearly tapping his foot to the beautiful Catholic songs of the Cortez family, their Spanish rhythms and percussive beats evoking joy. Every once in a while, he’d break out into a little seated dance.   He seemed to be enjoying the spaghetti, as he pulled each handful to his mouth to eat.   I have to admit, shamefully, that I was a little grossed out wa...