Love and Love Alone

By Tracy Epperson

There is a smell of salami hanging in the air as I get out of the car. To my right I see a white elongated circle approaching in the fading daylight. It has no hands or legs and is smooth, without wrinkles or protrusions. There are blinking lights where eyes would appear on a carbon life form. Q, as my friend Dan has named him, is the latest in security for the high-tech firm which borders the Guadalupe River. I gather the warm food stored in the Dan’s trunk and scurry in the other direction. Q is the benignest looking creature but I do not want to find out what hidden gadgets he avails to secure the premises.

Dan and I make our way up to the ledge of the river which is bordered by a surprisingly clean and wide dirt path. He takes two bags and heads towards the tunnel over which the passengers on Brokaw head to their destinations. Their cars pass over the dark makeshift homes of those living on the outskirts of society. They consist of displaced engineers and administrators as well as addicts and the unloved. What they have in common is the lack of a soft landing when life decided to throw them. I watch as people come out of the shadows to receive their package of food and thank Dan graciously. I am ready to bolt if one pulls a knife. I feel this benevolent man is kind yet naïve as he asserts himself defenselessly into an area where forgotten humans have axes to grind and nothing to lose and numb themselves with substances which aid in vacating their humanity. When people have nothing to lose, they lose it.

Dan walks back to meet me on the ledge and together we walk along the rivers edge. I am surprised that there is no smell. Just short of the cusp of the ledge, there are abodes held together by vinyl coverings which would blow away in a strong wind. The November sunset casts a pleasant light on the groomed dirt as Dan steps down the ledge to offer them a plate of food.

“That young man is new here” Dan says. “These are the higher functioning homeless” he says. “Some of them have misappropriated electricity. There is a place on the other side of the street that is called “Jurassic Park”. It’s near the golf course and you can see lights on and hear music when the golf course shuts down. Out of work construction workers and engineers have rigged up a small community with tell-tale signs of ingenuity without rules.”

I see the bikes with attached carts that they ride to the dumpster near my home to gather recyclables and treasures, both edible and not.

“Where do they go to the bathroom?” I ask.
“There are portables down the way.”
“Where do they shower?” I ask.
“They don’t” Dan replies. “some of these people have not showered in months.”

I cannot help but think that there but by the grace go I. I pray that they find some joy and relief in their community and that God is there amongst them keeping them safe and letting them sleep, assuaging their hunger, loneliness and the approaching chill of the night.

The growing homeless encampments interspersed amongst the most affluent neighborhoods in America brings to mind a Brave New World; a world where the masses huddle and numb themselves with colorful pills and where robotics have crowded out the need for their creators; a world in which a pandemic has set the world teetering on an uncertain economy and a dubious way of governing in this new way of masked life where everything seems hidden and disguised.

God says to gather my people; those broken and hungry and unused to kindness without motive, those forgotten by society whose bodies are tired and sore and aged beyond their years, those who live in unsafe conditions and are visited by death far too soon, those whose soul God covets and are ripe to his message of hope in their abandonment and desperation. This is the perfect field to harvest. I see how effectively love, and only love, so taken for granted by those who have it in abundance, can penetrate the broken hearted. I pray that God’s love may reach the broken-hearted through me.

Please feel free to omit the first paragraph. I put it in to show the contrast but it appears to just be out of place. Please edit or add as you see fit. Thank You