Today: Look a Homeless person in the eye

On any given day there are 800,000 homeless folks in the US. 200,000 of them are children. If you work downtown or drive thru a busy suburban intersection. Occassionally you might come across someone who is homeless. About one third the homeless individuals are mentally ill, another third living with the consequences of bad choice (addiction), and a third have had a bad break. It's the final third who are the folks who were one paycheck away from living on the street and the paycheck didn't come.

People who are homeless often feel less than human, or struggle with their identity for obvious reasons. The folks you drive past begging for money at that one intersection or the folks sitting on the park bench downtown.

When people are in a position to ask for money it feels dehumanizing to them. When people ignore them or don't look them in the eye it contributes to the growing disconnect they feel to the rest of the world.

I'm not telling you to that you should give them money.
But, today, look a homeless person in the eye.