Showing posts with label homelessness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label homelessness. Show all posts

Thursday, June 16, 2022

the queen and the homeless man

You may have read this excerpt on social media of a story about the Queen and someone at the Platinum Jubilee parade.

“Well,” said the Queen to the homeless man at the edge of the parade, “Where do you go from here?”

“I am not sure, your majesty,” the man answered with a tear. “You see I lost my job and my children have all grown up and gone on their separate ways.”

The man continued, “I am now homeless as I have nowhere else to stay.”

“Well, my friend,” the Queen replied to him, “This will never do at all!”

“I too am all alone. You can move into my palace. I’m sure we will have a ball.”

The man looked up and asked, “Will there be something to eat, dear Queen?”

"Of course," she replied, “The biggest spread of sandwiches you’ve ever seen.”

“And cups of tea and crockery that you can drop and I will never never mind.”

The man replied “Your majesty, I accept your offer. You are very, very kind.”


Hmm, you say. Really? The Queen invited a homeless man to come live in her palace?

Monday, July 11, 2016

one vote short - for less than a day


Tonight was the vote on changing the Marriage Canon of the Anglican Church of Canada to include same-sex marriage. It passed the house of laity and the house of bishops, with over 2/3's majority in each. But in the house of clergy, it was one vote short of passing.... 

And then the next day, an error was discovered which shifted the motion into passing!!



"But will we be addressing root causes of homelessness among lgbtq youth?" wonders someone attending the 2016 General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada.

That's a good question. If ending homelessness is not just about providing housing, the root causes  behind the homelessness of many people should be addressed, or we will just be treating the symptoms....

Yet is is much easier to provide some housing than it is to recognize and acknowledge that we are complicit in causing the problem. Let's take homeless lgbtq youth, for example. We are complicit because for years, the church has preached and acted against those who are part of sexual and gender minorities. Complicit because for years, the church has closed its heart to the least of these. Complicit because churches that are progressive in regard to their understanding of Scripture often still seem ashamed of the sexual and gender minorities in their midst, not offering a full and public welcome.

Read more here. 

And read more here. 

Monday, February 22, 2016

[this little light -- purpose built lamps for a great cause]

A friend of ours gave me this funky little lamp, which you see here on my desk at work.

Picture of "Manning" lamp from This Little Light, on my office desk.
The lamp is made by "This Little Light Handmade Lamp Company", based here in Edmonton. Alberta. Here's what their site says:
We take materials that have been discarded and rebuild them into unique, one of a kind lamps. The process of crafting each lamp is a metaphor for how love can take something broken and make it beautiful. Each lamp is hand crafted by individuals living out stories of Hope, Strength, Resilience and Courage. Whether someone is transitioning back into society after years of incarceration, recovering from addiction, or getting back on their feet after a season of homelessness, This Little Light provides the opportunity for people to discover their second chance.

They currently sell six styles of lamps. You can see them all online, as well as buying them at Park Lighting if you are local to Edmonton.

Six lamps from This Little Light.ca
This Little Light

Park Lighting












(prices as listed on 2016-02-02. subject to change)

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

[hotel 22]

I first saw this video on Richard Beck's blog (one of the few I follow regularly). It is the eloquently told story of the early hours of the morning for some of our neighbours.

Watch it and then read on.


Hotel 22 by Elizabeth Lo from Short of the Week on Vimeo.


Thursday, April 30, 2015

[see me: picturing new york's homeless youth]

portraits of homeless youth by Alex Fradkin, from See Me book. http://www.seemethebook.com/


"For the Reciprocity Foundation’s 10-year anniversary, Tagore [co-founder of Reciprocity] teamed up with award-winning photographer Alex Fradkin to challenge common perceptions of homeless youth — by giving these young people the power to portray themselves on their own terms."

The result is an exhibition and a full colour book See Me: Picturing New York City’s Homeless Youth.


Check out more portraits at the See Me book website.

Read the buzzfeed article.

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

homeless =

I was looking for alternative words for "homeless person" the other day, and one of the top Google results brought me directly to this:

thesaurus.com - homeless person - negative connotations - snip

How's that for bias and for perpetuating negative views of people who do not have permanent housing?

The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness / the Homeless Hub has a much more helpful typology of homelessness which understands the range of what homelessness can look like.


If you're interested, here's a link to the page at thesaurus.com.

Monday, November 04, 2013

the homeless are not human

Jesus prays about his Medial Prefrontal Cortex, cartoon by rob g

If you haven't heard about the Medial Prefrontal Cortex (mPFC for short), here's a quick explanation followed by the disturbing results of an experiment:

According to Psychology Today, the mPFC "activates when people do things that involve perceiving and relating to other people, such as recognizing and distinguishing between faces and empathizing." This means that it activates for your mother and your partner, but it does not activate when you see the sandwich your mother made for you or the sweater your partner gave you (no matter how tasty the sandwich or lovely the sweater).

homeless not humanIn their experiment, researchers Lasana Harris and Susan Fiske showed pictures of specific groups of people and measured the response of the mPFC. Here's what they found:
Images of all other groups besides the homeless activated the mPFC. This suggests that the homeless are not recognized as human relative to other groups. They actually are perceived, at least in this area of the brain, more like objects, such as tables.

The cartoon above is suggesting that Jesus' mPFC was malfunctioning, as he saw the hungry, the thirsty, the homeless, as people. Of course, it wasn't malfunctioning -- he was correctly functioning in seeing everyone whom God has made. So the questions I have are:
  • If the study was done among the religious in Jesus' day, would it have had similar results?
  • If this study had includes homeless persons among the subjects, would their mPFC activate when shown images of homeless people? (I'd assume "yes," but there could be other variables involved).
  • Some non-homeless people do see homeless people as people. Why is this different for them?
  • Can we use our mPFC as an excuse for ignoring some people?
Some words from Jesus:
 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’" Matthew 25:37-40 NIV


Read more about mPFC studies.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

[homeless for the holidays]


Carl Siciliano, Executive Director of New York's Ali Forney Center, writes:
Over the past few weeks I have been meeting with homeless LGBT youth. Each young person was, at the time I met with and photographed them, struggling to survive out on the streets as they waited for one of the few youth shelter beds in New York City to open up to them.
Read the rest of his account, along with the eleven photo+words vignettes that tell the stories of some of these youth who have been rejected by their families because of their sexuality and are now living on the streets of New York:
Homeless for the holidays: portraits of New York City's homeless lgbt youth

Their experiences are not unique to New York City. LGBT youth are mistreated and kicked out by their families regularly, including families who claim to be Christian and who devoutly attend church.