james – a conversation

Ben and I set out on our homeless lunch thing again today. We got denied by 3 guys, then decided to go to the Sunday Breakfast Mission to check out the scene. We were in the parking lot walking to Ben’s Jeep and this guy flagged us down. Actually he ran us down. James was convinced he knew us, and he tried to convince us that we had met before.

James had a really complex story about needing to get medication @ the VA hospital, he was just diagnosed with acute prostate cancer yesterday.

We offered to take James to the VA hospital to get his medication, but he said he just needed $14 for his co-pay. I think he realized he wasn’t getting $14 dollars from us, so he changed his request to 75 cents so he could have his jacket cleaned. Not kidding, that was the change in his request. Ben was generous enough to give him the change from the coin tray in his Jeep. Then, somehow (it’s still a little fuzzy) James scored a $5 bill from me. Good for him though.

We asked James if he wanted to meet us for lunch and he said he did. We said we’d meet him right here next Monday, he had to borrow a pen to write it in his calendar.

It surprised me that a homeless guy would have a calendar. But he did. And he wrote down our lunch date for next Monday – 12/17/2007 – 12:15 PM. I saw him write it down (with the pen I gave him).

This guy said way too many outrageous things in 5 minutes (like that he has a metal plate in his chest and that his right testicle is being removed on December 27, and he hopes they can save the left one, and the list goes on…) I can’t wait to sit down with him over a meal.

Afterward, Ben and I had a really challenging discussion on what to do when people ask for cash. This is the first time in all our encounters where we’ve handed out a little cash. I’m wrestling with this a bit. Probably because I’m cheap.

We talked about the over/under if James will show next Monday. I gave him a 20% chance of showing. But it is on his calendar….

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