Feb 19, 2010 revisited, Courage

As I was falling asleep last night, I thought a lot more about the individuals I met last night. The word that kept coming to my mind was "courage". The honesty with which they acknowledged their mistakes to us, complete strangers.

Another word that came to mind was "exhausting". It was Friday evening, and you could tell that it had been a hard week. But instead of crashing out on a couch, ignoring the world, and letting the week just drain away. But instead, they were pulling out blankets to sleep in taped off rectangles on the floor, eating whatever food had been cook to be served to them, and making conversation with complete strangers. As volunteers, we'd like to think that our conversation was stimulating and supportive, but honestly it was probably exhausting. I want to believe that the deaf woman I signed and talked with enjoyed our conversation, she at least indicated she did, but I would imagine it still took some effort. And again, it must take a lot of courage to sit and talk with the volunteers instead of shutting out the world in a blanket on the floor.

I've come away from last night feeling grateful that the men and women I met shared their time with me. And here's the cliche I was trying to avoid last night: This service event feels like i got more than I gave; that it wasn't work at all; and that I wish I could have done more.