I watched The Blind Side yesterday. I know it's been out for a good long while, but hey, I don't get to see many movies these days. It was quite enjoyable and I can understand why it got good reviews. I, however took something very different from the movie. I was able, in a few small places to see a glimpse of my Oma. Sandra Bullock's character reminded me so much of her. Not in the bleached and coiffed southern black walnut kind of way (tough nut to crack), but in the no-nonsense version of compassion. It's what I saw when I grew up. Whether it was the family of my Opa's health care worker who was stuggling and she went out and bought a pile of groceries, or the numerous "strays" that graced our family dinner tables over the years... there was always room.
Along the same lines, I saw an episode of Oprah recently that reminded me of the same thing. There was a women, a US veteran who had served in the Pentagon as well as in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now, for the last year, has lived in a car. Her pension pays the $10 a day car rental with about $3 a day to live on. It made me sad, not because she was homeless and it was a shame, but because I couldn't imagine letting anyone I knew live in a car. Does she have no family? No friends? She had housing, but she gave it up voluntarily to another female vet because that woman had children. Could they not have shared? It was just so far beyond my understanding that the people around her would let that happen.
I've been blessed, I have a house with room to spare. I have money to buy groceries and cook what I need and want. There is no reason at all that I can't share that. It might be uncomfortable, it might be difficult, but it's the right thing to do, and I hope that if given the opportunity, I will have the strength to do it.
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