June 18th, 2006 - Dignity Village

We delivered the cereal and propane tanks that the congregation donated to Dignity Village and Matt, Sara and I sing for about an hour and a half. After that we receive a tour of Dignity Village.

We sang Simon & Garfunkel, Woody Guthrie, Joni Mitchell and Dylan. The folks in charge and the others were gracious in accepting our cereal and propane.

Being there cleared many misconceptions for me. I heard stories and controversy prior to going about Dignity Village and the controversy surrounding it. This is based on research from the web and from things I was told. Now I see these misconceptions can be barriers built with facts, stories and ideas to prevent us going through compassion burnout (a term I heard used at the Oregon Synod Assembly Hunger workshop).

Here is how it happens for me. I may see a pan handler on the street, hear about a person through a friend or a stranger or see something on TV. In this case Matt has worked before with someone from Dignity Village.

I have the urge to help. Then come the questions and doubts, “What if my help stops some individual bootstrap effort they need to do to permanently better themselves?” and "There are established institutions to help. How do I know how to best help?"

The stories on the web about Dignity Village insinuated they were deliberately seeking out an alternative lifestyle and snubbed those of us who were not recycling and living in the suburbs and that, in essence, they were a commune. Some articles warned that the city was wrong for sanctioning this because they were liable if there was a fire and everything was not up to code or were depending on people to organize who had shown they could not organize their own lives or they would not be there.

This was not what I observed. I saw folks with a common problem, homelessness, banded together and creating what for most will be a temporary transitional solution.

When I was young there were several events in my life that crippled my intentions of helping people. In San Francisco I gave someone who asked trolley fare because he said he lost his wallet. The man took this small amount of money and said "Never give money to a guy like me because I am not going to use this for fare. I am going to buy wine with it." and he got off the trolley.

I was angry. It was like a slap in my face. I didn't realize that it didn't matter how he used my help but that I had helped. Now, I might call out for him to wait and make a point of giving him the same amount of money for fare again to show this is not about the money passing between us but about world views.

Being at Dignity Village resurrected many memories that I can deal with differently now than I did in the past. I am thankful for the experience and how something within me was transformed.