this reality

Not having a car has been difficult. It has also helped me to understand what it means to be privileged enough to have a car. It's easy for me to be annoyed about the 10 minute walk to the store in the Arizona heat, and being limited to only the groceries I can carry. It's easy to be frustrated about the long trips I have to take to get to church, the library, or anywhere else I want to go. It's easy to be upset that I always have to ask people for rides if I go somewhere after dark since I don't feel comfortable walking to my house from the bus stop in the dark.

Yet whenever I think these thoughts, I remind myself that for so many people, this is their reality. They don't have enough money to have a car. The bus is the only option. And some of them live much farther away from grocery stores and workplaces than I do. This is especially true for some of the refugees we work with. Even if they were professionals in their home country, here in the US they don't have a degree, so they are unable to get good jobs. The only way to do so would be to go through the education system here with the money they don't have. They often do not have cars and are forced to live in parts of the city that are more remote, since they are less expensive.

Today I heard someone say, "I don't know how people can just sit at the bus stops in the middle of the day with the sun beating down on them like that." And I just thought..."Because they don't have a choice.." Riding the bus exposes me to a different population. It makes me understand realities that I wouldn't have to deal with if I had a car. Having a car is a luxury that shelters me. It is easier to ignore the poor if they are on the buses and you have a car. The people who ride the bus become an abstract idea when you don't have to look into their faces. The separation makes it easier to think that the "less fortunate" are in some vague otherplace, with their names and faces and stories blurred.

At one of the bus stops I go to, I typically see people who I suspect are homeless. (I was told that Tucson has a huge homeless population. Because of the weather patterns here, many homeless people try to save enough money to buy a one way bus ticket .) They sit in the bus stops talking with each other, and when the bus comes, they continue to sit. Often people ask me for change, but I usually don't have any with me. (My bus pass is paid for by the month and the information is in the card.) Many of them seem to have mental illnesses. It is saddening to see the disproportionate amount of homeless people who have mental illnesses who are probably unable to get treatment. But that's another topic.

Earlier this week, I was sitting at a bus stop after picking up a package from the post office. It was hot and sunny, and I was worried I might get sunburned. A man with a plastic bag came by and began to search through the trash can at the bus stop looking for food. He pulled out a soft drink cup that had been thrown away and tried to drink the last of it. Then he sat down on the bench and waited for the bus with the rest of us.

I felt twisted with emotions--sadness, compassion, helplessness. We live in such a wasteful world. How often do we throw away the leftover food on our plate without a second thought? How often do we pour the rest of a drink down the drain or into the grass, or simply dump it into the trash? If we were more responsible about our consumption, what effect would that have on the hungry and the thirsty? What effect would it have on our environment and our natural resources?

A few weeks ago I wrote a post contemplating what it meant to hunger and thirst for righteousness. Hunger and thirst can cause a person to search through garbage to find relief. What do we have to search through to satisfy the hunger and thirst for righteousness?