Everyone has a breaking point in my opinion. A threshold of sorts. We will tolerate certain things to a certain point but everyone has some point at which they declare, "ENOUGH!!"
As we've talked about homelessness around the church, for many parishioners that threshold was one or two people sleeping on the church grounds. For others it was 5 men sleeping by the main door.
Today I learned that my threshold is 6 men plus one woman. It's no magic number and there's no rhyme or reason to it. All I know is that when one of the other homeless women came by for a shower and told me, "Oh yeah, there's a new lady staying now...she was sleeping next to J," the first thing I thought was, "for goodness sake, we're not a friggin shelter!!"
Now, don't ask why 6 plus 1. I do not know. And I'm trying with all my might not to react strongly. We are meeting with all of them tonight for dinner to try and figure out what would be an appropriate and necessary response for their needs.
I guess the surprising thing is only that this is where I hit my breaking point. Like I said, I believe we all have a threshold....some point where enough is enough. I know that. And I knew that about myself, I guess I just didn't expect that I would be hitting it now, or that 6 + 1 would be it....or something....who knows.
Meeting tonight to flesh things out. Then the subcommittee meeting in a week and a half to discuss further options. And prayers in the meantime that I don't go ballistic and kick everybody out.
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