Home Is Where You Take It.

I've moved around a lot. Had the pleasure of visiting and living in quite a few places, both domestically and overseas throughout the years. But wherever the road has taken me, there were always things that reminded me of home. When the Steelers beat the the Seahawks in the Super Bowl a few years ago, I had to stay up till 3am to watch the game because I was in a different country. Being a Pittsburgh fan, I was ecstatic and felt an immediate connection with all the other fans even though I was in the United Kingdom. There was a bond. In spite of the fact that I was thousands of miles from home, part of my home was innately within me.

Many of our Samaritan House residents are in similar predicaments, although their membership to the homeless diaspora is not intentional; life is not how they planned it. They, too, have travelled and relocated and moved around from burg to city to township. It is easy to look at a person and see them in their current state without ever considering that they have an entire history behind them. Childhood memories and adolescent experiences have shaped what they are today. When our homeless residents arrive, it is essential that I take a step back and try to remember that they are not the sum total of their appearance. They are layered and have personal and intimate pasts that transcend the clothing they are wearing and the medicines they might be taking.

I was reminded of this as I was in our dining area this morning doing some very important things (making hot water). The news came on our communal TV and a lady erupted with laughter and joy at the announcement that the Patriots were going to the Super Bowl. She was from Boston and she was homeless and unemployed and sick and weary and... for one brief moment... she was connected with something greater than herself. She felt pride even though she was hunkered down in the Pacific Northwest and her team was all the way back in Massachusetts.

It happens with food and music, as well. The scent of a particular meal can transport us a million miles away to places we haven't visited in decades. We hear a song we imagined had fallen off the face of the planet only to have it usher us back to 8th grade. Home is a concept more than a location. It is easy to look at the homeless and see a statistic or a cause, but are we able to see people with a history? Individuals who long for the familiarity of the best memories form their past.

We concentrate on fixing the present and forecasting the future so much that we forget each person has an incredible story already wrapped up within them.