It's not about me.

I wouldn't have even thought about "The Fox & the Hound," but we were talking about it in our pre-walk huddle. Just talking about how difficult it'd be for us to survive less than ideal nights on the streets.

In the movie, Widow Tweed eventually has to take Tod out to the woods and release him into the wild. Tod knows nothing about living in the forest, but other animals show Tod how life is in the woods.

From my two nights visiting with the homeless in Fort Wayne, they seem to have the same kind of unspoken system.

We also got onto the conversation of what they do the other 6 days that SOS isn't out walking the streets. There are several other groups that do similar things on other nights.

Our night started at Freimann Square. Papa Smurf was there. He's got an apartment now, but he still comes out to the Square. Very sweet man. Though I didn't know him when he was on the streets, I'm glad he still comes out to visit his friends and for us 'newbies' to get to meet him.

Mitch and Missy. I wish I knew more of their story. All I was able to gather is that Mitch lost his job. Now, they're out on the streets. They have family keeping some of their belongings. Missy needs some jeans with the cooler weather coming, so I've started asking around. I think that we've got 2 pairs lined up for her! Yay!

Over at the space ship, we saw Bernard. He was sleeping, so we didn't disturb him. The guys left some snacks for him.

It was quite a trek, but we met up with Brad and Michael. They were sitting on a log chatting by the light of a candle when we joined them. They got loaded up with snacks.

"A senior citizen shaving in the senior citizens' center. If that's the most dastardly thing I've done in my life, I'm just gonna have to live with that."
-Michael

Michael was talking about the plight of the homeless and how they are being pretty much persecuted at the moment. He said that it just takes one or two people being stupid and acting up, and that ruins things for the lot. Places that are almost paramount to survival in the cold winter months are becoming off limits because of a few bad apples.

Our time at the Salvation Army was short, but nice. There weren't too many guys out, and one of the other groups had already arrived and got most of the needs taken care of.

We didn't see Drew, and that made me kind of sad. I've been thinking about him the last two weeks. Wanting to know if he's feeling better. I was told that this is pretty normal for him.

"It has been customary to take people’s pain and lessen our own participation in it by turning it into an issue, not a collection of human beings."
-Anna Quindlan

I think I'm so guilty of wanting to just fix this, fix them. Kind of like I would sleep better at night if they weren't out there, be in Drew or the homeless. Then, I realize that it's not about me. These people have graciously welcomed me into their lives. Their space, their 'homes'. It's my perception that makes me uncomfortable.

I'm slowly learning.