Yesterday my heart broke. My family was waiting at a tram station on our way home, and a homeless man who obviously had too much to drink was staggering around waiting for a bus. He was saying ‘Hi” to everyone but nothing more. As he was waiting he was unaware he was standing in the middle of a street. Well, needless to say he stopped traffic and cars were honking so he would move which he was…very slowly.

The first car drives by slowly but the man in the second car gets out. Yelling at him, grabbing him by the shirt and dragging him the other way to the side walk. He was being so rough with the man that the homeless man staggered and fell over on the side walk, hard. But that wasn’t enough for the man from the car. He reached down, grabbed the man again and DRAGGED him another 10 ft. and began screaming in his face. All the while his car door is open and still stopping traffic. I honestly hope the man was too drunk to remember the encounter.  I could tell that everyone waiting for a buss/tram, EVERYONE, was watching and became alarmed at the extreme actions of this random stranger to the homeless drunk. I honestly thought he would start beating him- he was so angry and seemed out of control.

But here’s the deal. They were two strangers. How could one get so angry and almost out of control with a stranger immediately?! What had happened earlier that must have angered the man? Because the homeless man did nothing to the other. And the thought that keeps going through my mind is- the homeless man is a fellow human being. How could one come so close to hurting another for no reason? My heart tore at the whole scene.

But I wasn’t standing there alone- my kids were with me. Mainly Emma who has a specific and sensitive heart towards the homeless. I chose to not let her see the violence that one man was giving to another who couldn’t protect themselves. As she gets older yes, but not at 6 yrs old.

Anyways, that’s it. The man in the car got done saying whatever felt the need to scream and got back into his COMPANY car with logos on the side and drove away. The drunk man got up slowly and walked back to the bus station and got on the next bus. Completely unaware of the shift in my heart that occurred watching the confrontation between the stranger in the car and himself.

There’s just something that gets me all riled up when I see or hear about someone taking advantage of a weaker person. If they are unable to protect themselves, even if they are a homeless drunk, I have an instinct that screams that they should be given respect. We don’t know the man’s life story and therefore have no right to judge him.

And honestly, I have to remind and force myself to not judge the man in the car for his actions. Two worlds collided in the street yesterday, and I don’t know the back story to either not that I think it would justify such actions. There must be a wound or something in his heart that propelled him to act as he did. We’re all wounded somewhere because of something. Sigh, life.

 

Just some thoughts to help me process.  Hope you have a good day.

Thanks for visiting! I'm a happy mom and wife who loves the smell of books, traveling and food. I like dreaming about alter egos, snuggling with Emma and going on dates with hubby,Travis. Pretty much anything creative I'm into. I hope you enjoy my rants and raves and come back soon. Oh, and I love comments so please feel free to let me know what you think!

Comments are closed.