#homeless work

[remembertheplunge]

12/31/2018. Josh was one of the homeless men that I helped out and got to know between between 2016 and 2019. Earlier that day I had represented him in court and saved him from state prison arguing that he had done well in the Gospel Mission. Program for four months. The judge let him continue

Of my work with the homeless, Josh said “You are one of them (the street people) they know you.”

Josh went on to marry he got hood son back. His kind words resonate with me as my soul is still out there on the street with them.

[remembertheplunge]

For what are we saving? A future that may find us just ghosts of spirit unable to live it

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My friend Aaron was shot in the leg running from a store after getting caught shop lifting in 2019. I went to see him in the hospital several times. He has fully recovered now. I knew Aaron from my work on the streets with the homeless and their friends since late 2016. Aaron was a handsome young man probably about 22 when I first met him in maybe 2018. He was in and out of jail through the years. He is in prison now and due to be released early next year. He has called me from prison and we have talked. He has hopes of rising up and out of his downward spiral. Aaron and I had many deep conversations about life. He held my story as I held his. He counseled me about potential dangers and possibilities of my work with the homeless and the people of the street.

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" I didn't do the work for money. I did it because it's my essence.'

Now I feel compelled to use whatever money I can afford to make love work, to bring truth into being. To allow generosity and compassion to flourish. This is more than altruistic. it is necessity to being fully alive." p 74 Book of Awakening

[remembertheplunge]

"Compassion is a Necessity"9/18/2018

Transcript of above entry

I met Lurch on Telegraph Ave in Berkeley, California. He skate boarded to Mt Shasta. Three weeks after arriving, the Carr Fire broke out. Ashes fell from the sky like snow. A crazy guy with a big fluffy dog ran at the flames. Lurch rescued the dog who was with him today on Telegraph. They hitch hiked back here. He is from Ohio and has size 15 feet! He was with a female friend named Kiwi.

I bought a painting before meeting Lurch from Tony B. It was of the Dalai Lama and it said "Compassion is a necessity" I paid $25 for it. I showed Lurch the painting. He knows Tony. Tony has written two books.

Lurch walked with me to my car parked on Carlton. I gave him a really full TJSKing bag. He walked away into the twilght with his dog.

All this and a spectacular orange sunset and cool, sweet air.

End of entry

Notes 1/3/2026

Please see the Tony B painting of the Dalai Lama in the following blog.

The Carr fire was a massive fire in and near the city of Redding, California, that began 7/26/2018.

In 2018, I was still passing out Trader Joe Bags filled with food, socks and toiletries to the homeless. I called the bags Trader Joe Survival Kits or TJSK bags. I started that practice in 2017. I did it for the encounter with the homeless person. The encounter, like the ones with Lurch and his dog, healed me via mutual compassion. Plus, I love Lurch's back story!

[remembertheplunge]

8/16/24. Friday 6:59pm

The red hand print that I use as the symbol of my blog, remember the plunge, was placed on the back of my garage by one of the homeless men that stayed in my house in July 2017. He was an artist and worked on his paintings during the two weeks he stayed in my house. His name is Aaron S. The following is a journal entry about what was happening with Aaron about 2 years later:

February 9th, 2019. The following is a text message I received from Aaron:

“Enrique and I are sitting by Salida library trying to figure out what to do. It’s getting cold out here that’s for sure…Looks like a storm is coming in with speed.”

“He and Enrique stay in Enrique’s car.”

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I used the red hand print as the symbol of my story because it represents the life and death feel of my journeys through the aids plague , the gay rights struggle, the criminal justice system and my encounters with the homeless.

[remembertheplunge]

A traveler without a permanent home

4/16/2017 Sunday 9:58pm

I met Justin in San Fransisco on the Castro. He was a handsomely nuts homeless guy. He told me that he is a traveler without a permanent home. Aaron, a homeless man I met in Modesto a few weeks before, told me that he was on an endless hike. What great definitions of life on the street!

Regarding my work with the homeless, my sister Zoe said the psychotics will hurt or kill me. She warned of scabies and theft. She saw nothing good in what I m doing. She told me to join an organization that aids the homeless instead of doing it on my own.

NO.

This is simply an encounter with  a traveler. We can interpret symbols together.

Zoe said the homeless are the new Jews.I said they are like the new AID’s victims. Such brutal beauty is revealed when we become visible to one another.

4/17/2017 Monday 3:08am

Wow—Those homeless guys  since Thursday have moved through like storms. Someone “threw their brain in a hurricane”.a  lyric from a John Prine song I heard pulling into San Fransisco on The Loft (internet radio station). 

In trying to touch the face of God, like Icarus, they get too close, their wings melt and they fall. These are sometimes hot guys, gorgeous guys, drowning in self.

Zoe says, “Run and hide. People in Chico (where Zoe lived) are terrified of the homeless.” 

I do agree. Don’t approach them in a place where you have to get back in your car like a parking lot or a gas station. Zoe said “They have to survive, so, they will do anything.”

The homeless guy’s desperateness is balanced by his sincerity.He comes at life from a base perspective. All bull shit is cut out. You get the real, pure essence of them.

They may radiate healing. The encounters with the homeless have an overall calming effect on me. They shift the day for me.

End of this part of the above entries

Note 12/14/2025

The above was taken from entries in my April 2017 journal.

From mid March to late October 2017 I had many encounters with the homeless in several cities in California. I would give them bags with food, socks and toiletries in return for their stories. My sister Zoe was worried that I would be physically injured or killed during my homeless encounters. Although I did lose property I was never touched. I found the homeless meetings, which I called encounters to be healing. The homeless  had the power They healed me. 

[remembertheplunge]

The life span of a homeless person is 30 years less than that of a homed person

May 29, 2017.  11:01pm. Labor Day, Memorial Day, whatever day…

Wonderful meeting with Gary at Dale Road Mc Donalds tonight. He’s actually quite handsome—Big Build—young guy—maybe 30.

Very deep, kind sincere man.

Very tired and worn down.

He’s used to sleeping outside. No TV. “If all this wasn’t here, we’d all be sleeping outside” Gary said, meaning the town’s houses and businesses. He then asked “What will be here in a million years?”

He had a beer today to cut his methamphetamine cravings. I gave him a copy of Sober For Good. I gave him a bag with 3 pairs of socks I told him that I’m glad that he texts me . Few other (homeless people) have.He said that God sent me. He asked God over and over “Why is Lew in my life?” Meaning “it’s great that you, God. sent him".

I told him that I love talking with him.

End of entry

June 3, 2017 Saturday 9:13 pm

Great day—

I met Michael and Martin. 

Michael was shirtless. He was ripping up the trash can in front not Demples’s looking for food. He had a sign asking for help by the Star Buck’s drive way. He was a skate board break dancer. He was  also a gold miner I think. He was middle eastern, muscular and lean. He asked “I have no family. Has that happened to you?"

Martin’s son was killed and after that, he couldn’t work. He was devastated. He’s got support—his Grandfather pulled up as we left my car. They had a tail gate service. He met with his wife there to do a bible study.

End of entry

Notes 1/3/2025

In 2017, I had many interactions with the homeless in 2017. I called these interactions “encounters”. I would pack Trader Joe reusable shopping bags with food, socks and toiletries and pass them out. If the bag was accepted, the homeless person would always thank me. Sometimes without a word. They had the power. They healed me.

I must have met Gary prior to the meeting by Mc Donalds in Modesto, California since I said that he had sent me a text.

Sober For Good is a great book about getting sober off alcohol. It holds that there are as many ways to get Sober as there are people. 

Demples was a great retro video and CD store in Sacramento across the street from the Tower Theater in Land Park area. Demples has since gone out of business. 

I heard on KPFA radio today that the life span of a homeless person is 30 years less than that of a homed person.

[remembertheplunge]

Field of Dreams 8/6/2019

Field of Dreams was a beautiful 1989 movie staring Kevin Costner. it was about an Iowa farmer who plows down his corn field to build a baseball diamond because a voice told him to. It said "If you build it, he will come." His neighbors thought he was crazy. The corn field was his source of income.But, he built the field over the corn field and, his deceased father, a baseball player, did come!

Angeles Arrien was a writer and a philosopher. She died in 2014. Her you tube talks are inspiring. She said "Start a foolish project. Noha did" (from the Bible: Noah and his Ark).

In late 2016, I felt that "something wants to happen through me", so I ripped down my "corn field" of social approval and started the foolish project of having encounters with the homeless. This included passing out bags of food, socks and toiletries in several cities to the homeless. The bags were Trader Joe reusable bags. So, I called them Trader Joe Survival Kits or TJSK. It also included letting several homeless men stay in my house for days or weeks at different times from March to October 2017. I found that during the homeless encounter, they healed me. They had the power.

Kevin Costner and I were both born in 1955, so that's why I was interested in the age he played in the movie ( his character was born in 1952)

[remembertheplunge]

Goodwill Hunting

June 24, 2017 Saturday 10:01pm

Great Day. Discovered the movie “Goodwill Hunting”

And, so far, it’s got synchronicity and resonance with now written all over it.

 It was a 1997 film. Academy Award winner. A Robin Williams movie.

In the movie , there are no cell phones, a Gerry Rafferty song was included,  as were Harvard vs thugs, and  the same dancing figure painting in the girl’d dorm room (photo to follow) as the one  I found in a dumpster in 1987 and still have in my home.

The movie , thus, screams out Jared and Lew. Jared was brilliant in human relations as was the Matt Dillon’s character in the movie.

Regarding my work with the homeless, including letting them stay in my house,  I told my neighbor Jeff that I I crave the connection—the purity of the relationship with the homeless. I can’t put into words why I love it. It’s ineffable.

I can only tell you what I do, what we did. I did say that Jared was the most exquisite person that I have ever met, or encountered. Healing, melding right along side his propensity for intense thievery and addiction.

End of entry

Notes 1/9/2025

It’s hard to explain in words why I have encounters with the homeless. There is an aspect of soul truth to the encounters. I think in the encounter I’m attempting to touch the meaning of being human.There is a great purity and a generosity amongst the homeless .They teach me what a human could be. 

Jared in the above entry is the same Jared that I discussed in my 1/9/2025 Blog.