Sunday’s after the park I go down to the underpass. There I do the same as I do in the park, give a warm meal but mostly hang out and talk. This past Sunday we had finished loading the truck backup and a group that we had been visiting with left and was walking down the street. My son and I were still hanging out when a lady with the group came running back yelling for help. One of the guys with them had roughed her up and threw her in the bushes. She was afraid that the guy who roughed her up was going to do something to one of the other guys and asked if we would help (they asked not to have the cops involved). So, my son, one other guy and myself jumped in the truck and went to help. To make a long story short, we got everyone back to the underpass without anyone else getting hurt. As we all stood there talking, the lady came up and gave me a hug and said “Thank you, you’re the only normal that has ever cared enough to help.”  -Denie in Boise, Idaho

Denie, like Ken Loyd and the HOMEpdx crowd here in Portland, Oregon, choose to break the script that most of us Normals have with people who are on the streets. There is like an unspoken code between Us and them. We ignore them, and they leave us alone.

My normalcy keeps me safe inside an insulated boundary of ignorance. If I keep my eyes averted from looking at the scrawny panhandler on the corner, then I won't feel curious compassion to know his story. Or his name.  If I cross the street to avoid crossing paths with a homeless person, then I've kept my normal routine intact of only coming into contact with other normals. I avoid the discomfort of coming face to face with someone whose life reeks of failure and defectiveness. Navigating myself past the broken lives that litter my city's streets and freeway ramps, I am able to pretend that my society is healthy and normal. When everyone I know lives indoors and keeps up with the status quo, then I develop a world view that a person only needs to work hard and want a better life (indoors) to have one.

...is it normal to not care and turn a blind eye, if it is then I don’t want to be considered as normal. I want to be abnormal...

 I read a quote somewhere recently about Christ followers need to not only care for the poor, but  need to know the poor. That is abnormal. That is the kingdom of Jesus, which is abnormal in contrast with the kingdom of self and the kingdoms of the world. The way of Jesus is to care and connect to the most vulnerable and broken.  It is not normal for people of means to pay attention to people of no means.

Normal is overrated anyway. I don't want to be normal. I want to be like Denie.