Homeless

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/28/us/bend-oregon-mayor-homeless.html#:~:text=Craig%20Coyner's%20descent%20onto%20the,on%20the%20edge%20of%20society.

("Homeless in the City Where He Was Once Mayor")

It strikes a nerve, or at least it should, when the story of someone like Craig Coyner's surfaces. When the expectations we all have for how our comfortable lives will remain forever unencumbered do not match the reality of what then occurs.

It is at that moment we come face to face with the realization there is the possibility of a Craig Coyner in each of us. Or in those we love the most. Or in our friends. Or neighbors. And it should serve as vivid reminder not to be dismissive or cavalier of those who struggle, not to be so harsh in our judgments of those who, in our eyes, have failed.

What makes us better than or different from a Craig Coyner or the next homeless person we walk by on the street? The answer is there is not nearly the chasm of separation we perceive which permits us to lay in our warm beds at night while those like Craig Coyner wrestle to find restless sleep in the streets.

And it is not merely in Bend Oregon, it is in every city, each town or hamlet across this country and on this planet. People who by mishap, by unintended circumstance, have become Craig Coyner, no longer lawyer or mayor but now and seemingly forever beaten down and broken.

There but for.... 

Not every story is "Sleepless in Seattle." Far too many are merely "Homeless in Bend." Without the fairy tale conclusion.

And it is that "uncomfortable truth" which should serve as our guide as we navigate our way around those just trying their best to survive.