This blog will mostly be about my experience working at Our Daily Bread, a soup kitchen and hospitality center in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati. Even before I started working here I sussed this experience will be great for a story-gatherer like myself.
Heard this in a conversation with Sister Mary Beth, our Executive Director, at Chipotle the week before I started:
"One of the guys who comes in owned this cat he just loved. When it died we helped him get another one and are helping him with cat food and kitty litter and everything. But last week when his old cat died he brings the body here in a nylon bag, tears just streaming down his face: 'I live in Over-the-Rhine, Sister; I have no place I can bury him.' I agree to help him out. I wasn't gonna bury the nylon bag, so I open it up.
"Now, this man's a veteran. When I look inside—the cat's body is wrapped in an American flag.
"What can I do? When I bury it, I salute."
Mary Beth has seen a lot. At lunch today she told stories of working with three- and four-year-olds at a Head Start-like program. When they were baking homemade Play-Doh one day, one kid took the edge of a piece of paper and started cutting lines with the flour on the table—that's what you do with white powder, right? And another kid, another four-year-old, announced one day, "I know how you get pregnant!"
"All right, how do you get pregnant?" Mary Beth asked her.
"You take the beer out of the freezer, you take the wine out of the refrigerator, you drink the beer, you drink the wine, then you get fat and then you get pregnant."
Other highlights of my first day included a guy who came into the office to sing a belated happy birthday song of his own composition—he was pretty good. I tried recruiting him for my church choir. And the number one question asked by people meeting me: "Can you bake brownies?"
"Yes, I can bake brownies."
"Are they good brownies?"
"Yeah."
"All right, I guess you can stay."
It snowed yesterday. One fella came in asking for some socks. His had gotten all wet in the snow last night.
"Whatever thoughts we have about God, who He is or even if God exists, most will agree--that God has a special place for the poor. The poor are where God lives. God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is where the opportunity is lost and lives are shattered. God is with the mother who has infected her child with a virus that will take both their lives. God is under the rubble, in the cries we hear during wartime. God, my friends, is with the poor, and God is with us if we are with them.
"This is not a burden. This is an adventure."
--Bono
"This is not a burden. This is an adventure."
--Bono
5 comments:
Let me be the first to comment on this wonderfully named blog!! I laughed out loud when I remembered that story...
I am excited to read your stories; thanks for sharing. I hope this new job will be very meaningful for you!
peace
Ok, if you can't be number one, be the best number two you can be!!!! I guess that's me, number two. Could I be anymore middle school boy-esque? I am also excited to read your stories and I'll offer up prayers for your gifts to be blessings in this new role. Sure, you can add me, but I almost never update. Maybe between you & Laura O, I can get enough needling to make more of an effort.....Peace to you on this day!
that's poingant, about the american flag... we love our animals in very deep ways.
love them stories! keep at it. yours is a truly refreshing voice.
I still have to thank you for making the great New Year's Day brownies for Lynn and I.
And yes, you make great brownies !!! YUM : -P
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