Turning on the light.

The other day as I went into the backroom of the women’s center about an hour after it had closed down for the day to get a glass of water, I flipped on the light switch and heard an alarming noise—it appeared to be a grumbling pile of clothes. In fact, there was a woman trying to sleep beneath the clothes—a pregnant woman who was also an addict. It was disturbing to think of the unborn child that is to come into the world to be cared for by a mother who can’t care for herself, facing a life of poverty and great uncertainty. It was also another reminder of the difficult circumstances many of our clients are facing.

One thing that I’ve really noticed since joining JVC is how out of touch with the world you can become in just a couple of weeks. My constant checking of e-mail and news has nearly ceased due to the lack of Internet in our apartment and the terrible reception that our TV receives. At home I was a bit of a political junkie, watching commentary on MSNBC and CNN for hours on end, but here I’ve realized that the world goes on without my reading of every John McCain “senior moment” and apparently “Alaskan teenagers gone wild.”

Also, the other day one of the volunteers in the dining hall asked if I’d seen one of the college football games over the weekend. I shrugged and said that I don’t get ESPN, but still he recounted the game—I apparently missed one of the greatest games ever.

Though, I got my revenge afterwards when he launched into a story about his recovery from alcoholism, and I said, “Oh really, well let me tell you this great story about the amazing six-pack of beer I drank over weekend…” Actually, that’s not true. Though, I think that’s about the only way he could’ve experienced the mixture of jealousy, rage and sadness that was momentarily coursing through my veins.

Joking aside, it has been useful for me to realize that most of the things that I concern myself with will continue on without me and how easy it is to build-up your own little world of pop-culture and politics and even derive great satisfaction from all of it—but none of it is real. It’s not real at least in comparison with the human connections we can make. It’s more important for me to eat a donut and talk with some of the guys in the men’s center than it is for me to have an encyclopedic knowledge of sports. Though, I am planning to get a digital box for our TV in hopes of attaining a slightly more watchable picture, you know, so I can talk sports with the guys and make more meaningful connections…


“Men are beginning to realize that they are not individuals but persons in society, that man alone is weak and adrift, that he must seek strength in common action.” –Dorothy Day