Moving to an urban place
I have a couple thoughts today about being in a much more urban setting than Norman. This is not to say that these things don’t exist in OKC, or maybe even in Norman, but I didn’t really encounter the poverty there than I’m encountering here. This morning there was a patient like of about ten men outside the plasma donation center. This isn’t any particular kind of anomaly, and I think everyone knows someone who has made a little extra cash that way when they’ve been broke, but the thing that got me thinking about this particular line is that every man in it was African American. This made me think a couple things: none of these men have traditional jobs, because it was 8:30 and the line certainly wasn’t moving (some of them were sitting on the ground); it also made me wonder if there isn’t a plasma donation center in the white suburbs where all the white people go to donate body fluids for money. I don’t know.
The other is that on my way from my apartment to the bus stop, which is one block away, I pass the Anglican church I mentioned in an earlier post. This church has a fenced courtyard in front and I noticed this morning that there were two people curled up against the building at the far end of the courtyard. I’m guessing they were homeless, although it’s always possible that they were sleeping outside the Anglican church for the fun of it. When I came back this afternoon both of them and all their stuff was gone. This makes my heart hurt.
