Rebuilding Rob

As WordPress is continuing to recycle the same old prompts, I pulled another prompt from The Coffee Monsterz Co to respond to today

What are your immediate thoughts when you pass a homeless person?

My immediate thoughts when I pass a homeless person are sympathy and empathy. The first question I ask myself is:

How did they get here?

As a person who lives paycheck to paycheck, I know it doesn’t take more than a few unfortunate events to have the proverbial floor come out underneath your feet. Like so many other Americans, I am overwork and underpaid. Sometimes I feel like I am only one or two paychecks away from being out on the street myself.

But at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter. “how they got there“. They are human beings. 

Is it a question of mental health?

Mental healthcare in this country is an absolute joke. I’ve heard stories that – in my state – back in the 90s a lot of mental health care facilities were shut down. Some of the former patients had no where to go and ended up on the street.

Then, I think there’s also something to be said about what being homeless does to one’s psyche. Sometimes, it’s a questions of “what came first? The chicken or the egg?”

Do they have any friends or family who could help them?

Throughout my life, I’ve been extremely fortunate that I do have a good support network. If nothing else, I have my immediate family of my brother and ny sister. We may not always get along, but they’ve always been there for me whenever I’ve needed them.

There are some people who don’t have any siblings or any children or the last surviving member of their family. And some cases they are truly on their own in this world. Again, without somebody there to help you when you fall, I think it’s easy to get left behind.

I know the prompt asked me what was the “first thing“ that went through my head when I saw a homeless person. But I have to think of these two subheading as 1A, 1B and 1C

I’ve been approached by enough homeless people that I don’t have a problem telling them know when they ask me for spare change. I’ve been surprised to see that most of the homeless people I encounter in Detroit are actually very polite. They will say things to me like a “thank you. God bless you”. One time when I was in Daytona Beach during spring break, a homeless person approached me in a McDonald’s lobby mind you. And when I refuse to give him any money, he cursed me out. Of course, this guy was clearly drunk, so there’s that.

I wish there was something that could be done about the homelessness epidemic in America. This is a problem with a free enterprise system like ours. In America, we’re told “you can be anything you want to be if you work hard”. But American dream is just that: a dream. What about the people who fall through the proverbial cracks? For whatever reason – mental health, bad breaks, no support system – it does happen.

When it comes to interacting with homeless person. It is important to have both sympathy and empathy. I’m grounded enough to know that that could very easily be me. I hope I never lose that perspective. 

Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like, 👍 comment and subscribe to my blog below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media as well! Check out my most recent posts as well as some earlier, related posts:

• Rob’s Retro Movie Review: This is Spinal Tap (1984) – The Movie That Scaled to Eleven
• A Death in the Family (And My Disposable Income): My Life in Comics
• The Supporting Cast: Navigating the Eras of Male Friendship
• Life is What Happens: A Look Back at My Non-Existent 2025 Vision
• The Moment I Walked Inside a Hallmark Movie

The article “a man on the street… “First appeared on Rebuilding Rob