“What if something happens?”
I am so tired of hearing these words.
I have been involved with coordinating an “overnight warming center” at our church for individuals who are unhoused. Our goal was to give a warm place for people to sleep when it was dangerously cold.
When you open your door to individuals who are unhoused, those who are part of that large group called “the homeless” you stop seeing a faceless mass. You see individuals with names, and stories. They become friends, community, or family.
Now that the nights are getting warmer we closed.
Some of us volunteers have been involved with finding them new places to hide.
We purchased tents and sleeping bags. But then the question became where they could erect the tents.
One way is private property. However, when we asked we were met with the wall-of, “What if something happens?”
What if something happens? Four words of fear. Once we go down the “what if” path we are lost. Meanwhile something is happening. Twelve individuals are hiding out on the outskirts of our city.
I have been accused of having a big heart. My “heart” is really the same size as any one else’s. The only difference is that there are those who let “what if something happens” stop them and those who ask, “But what if nothing happens, then what happens to those left out in the dark woods of an uncaring community?”
I am Dan Kenney and this is my perspective.
