Happy Halloween!

Today it’s cold and it’s rainy and generally unpleasant outside, which on any other Friday would be a downer, but since it’s Halloween, it feels perfect. I guess those are my Midwest roots shining through.

This afternoon we’re having a small Halloween party for the staff, transitional employees and volunteers. I’m dressing as a construction worker. The costume is not well crafted or clever; it’s actually fairly pathetic. I’m wearing jeans, hiking boots, a t-shirt, aviators and an orange construction vest that I found in my closet when I moved in. What can I say? I’m living simply.

Yesterday I jokingly asked one of the guys in the men’s center if he planned on dressing up for Halloween. He laughed and he stroked his beard for a couple of seconds and said, “No, but I think I will go trick-or-treating. What time do the kids go out these days?”

I wasn’t sure if that was a good idea, but I decided to let him make his own call on that one. So here’s to hoping he gets plenty of good things to eat and not picked up by the cops!

On the subject of costumes, on some days I feel as though I’ve come to work dressed as Superman. Similar to when Clark Kent takes off his glasses and no one recognizes him, when I put on my SVdP badge the guys suddenly think that I’m capable of anything. And while it’s flattering, it’s also occasionally overwhelming.

A week or two ago one guy came into the center and he wanted me to get him a job. He told me about how he’d been fired and how he has a wife and two kids that he needs to support. I referred him inside to the job center at SVdP, but that wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted me to find him a job, but not just any job, a job in Texas. I eventually found him the numbers of a few job agencies in Houston and convinced him to go inside to the job center and see what they could do for him, and I casually said I would let him know if I heard of any other leads.

I should be more careful with my words. He came back into the center, looking understandably tired and disgruntled, and he asked me if I’d found him anything. I shook my head and apologized and then asked how things went over in the job center. He said they hadn’t found him anything either and looked away. A minute later he asked if I wanted to play cards. I wasn’t really in the mood, but I figured it was the least I could do and said “sure.”

As the word was still rolling off my tongue, stuck in between my teeth, he stood up from his seat and, before storming out, he angrily said, “Man, forget you. You don’t care about anyone. You just want to play cards. You don’t want to help me out--I’ve got kids, man!”

That was a trick question, certainly not a treat, though.

I felt bad, I really did, and I wished that I could’ve done more. But the truth is, in most cases I really can’t. On most days I have enough trouble making sure we have clean towels, enough soap, shampoo, a hot pot of coffee and an appropriate movie to put on the television.

Taking satisfaction in the small strides and little victories is something I’ve touched on before, but it’s something that I have to constantly remind myself of. When I can get a guy a clean pair of socks and underwear--that is a small step. And when, like earlier this month, I can call around and get one of our clients into a rehabilitation center--that is a major victory, and one that needs to be appreciated, because they are few and far between.

“You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.” -Anne Lamott