Sep 16 2008
Moses in The Wilderness | A burning Bush problem.
Well this is kind of a continuation of Steven. In fact lets end the Steven story here.
He was a lovely gentle man, he had been ripped off by his employers out of his work inheritance of like 61 thousand, lost his apartment, his mates on the street had taken his clothes and his tax return more than once, AND he smoked the cheapest of cigarettes. Had he smoked more expensively I would have questioned his sincerity. AND he didn’t smell of booze. I like Steven, the sheet metal worker, more to the point in that brief talk I loved Steven, and would have gladly become friends. I have looked for him since and not seen him. Perhaps he’s avoiding this knowledge & understanding hungry kiwi. LOL. Can’t say I blame him. I avoid myself sometimes!
Now to todays image.
As promised, this is almost a generic picture (of the male kind @ least, there are woman and younger than this, though I think a bit of age tampering goes on) of beggars at the crossroads and lights in Denver.
Its a fairly typical cardboard sign. This guy came out crossing himself and I thought he had the look of Moses down from the mountain, which this guys equivalent may just have been leaving the fast food outlet after a feed…invisible @ stage left. Moses eyes would have burned with the presence of God. Wouldn’t yours? I spose it depends if God is a Republican or a Democrat. This guy had the mystical unbalanced look and body language of a zealot.
Speaking of body language, I like John Mc Cain BUT I wish he’d stop pointing to people in the crowd………stage left, stage right…..LOL. who me, what’ve I done. But at least he has a point!
Back to the prophet of the moment. So this is pretty typical. I have it on good authority from fellow beggars that these guys are well looked after by the churches…feed, clothed, showered and loved.
They have chosen a path……………not just the one to the River Platte to sleep.
Steven was worried with winter coming on. He’d been rained on the night before…..it was getting cold and the shelters didn’t open until October.
As to the burning Bush part of the title.
No doubt Democrats bash Republicans for the problem and visa versa…………………I just thought it was a good play on words.
And you don’t see this kinda thing in New Zealand………..I never have but I guess I haven’t frequented K road.
Please let me know if you have seen this in NZ.
You can see a larger version of this CLICK HERE
Hi Graham. Saw a beggar for the first time sitting outside Postie Plus, the Okara Barn shopping Centre in Whangarei, a few weeks ago
It bothered me for days.
Wow……..Are you sure he wasn’t just a busker!! LOL
It is disturbing isn’t it.
I heard years ago from Christian friends who traveled to India etc, that some beggars are professionals.
That seems to be the case here too. They are well looked after by aid organisations, Church & other.
I have heard stories of them driving away in cars parked down the road, nice cars!
I rubbed shoulders the other day with several of them and they themselves shared these stories among othre sof T Bone steak feeds, new clothes etc.
This helped toughen me up a bit.
Apart from Steven (whom I gave 75cents) I had kind of decided that I wasn’t gona give anyone any money, not to reinforce a dependency.
I’d decided to get cans of food or sandwiches or that kinda stuff.
Money would just end up on alcohol probably.
Then I heard stories of those kinds of offerings being snubbed.
SO how com ethey do it?
To me it’s kinda like the spam emails about dead uncles, or needing to get 15 million out of Africa.
You know the kind!
People must fall for it, just like someone must give these beggars money for them to keep doing it.
Perhaps there is a strategy that they know people will crack when confronted with ‘ugliness’ and they play on that and even dress it up a bit, look sad etc.
This is a summary of my thoughts thus far on it.
One thing I know. A good book says, ‘the poor we will always have with us’.
And actually in the OT provision was made for them……hmmmmmmm……….maybe I am being to hard here….I am such a softee.
Haven’t seen beggars in New Zealand as such but I have seen plenty of ‘tramps’ cleaning out the city rubbish bins at night times and I have seen it done in the day time too. Dressed in all their tramp clothes and sack over the shoulder etc. Worked with a guy once in Auckland and he knew one that I had seen and according to him, this tramp was extremely wealthy.
One reads in the paper from time to time of a so called beggar overseas (the last one I read of was in England) who all the community have known for years as a beggar and then the person has died and have had $millions under their bed or in a bank etc and ‘willed’ it to their dog or cat or some charity.
I have seen the beggars in Europe and I struggled as to what was real and even felt guilty of the essence of my judgement or lack of. With little or no exposure in NZ it is a realiy check when contact with one is made, even when travelling in Australia. I struggle with the view of why they are there. Has it been a personal choice or is it by unfortunate circumstances.
A very thought provoking blog.
Hi Graham, I like your site! I had visited once and liked your blog on
our beggars, that’s why I sent the other pictures. I thought you’d get a kick out of them! It’s neat to read your perspective on things here in Colorado. I’m sure it’s so different from NZ, and hard too, to be so far away. I lived in Alaska for 4 years and it’s not just a short flight home for the weekend, I only went home once during that time. Hopefully U 2 can get together with us 2 soon. Take care.