A trite, cliche start, but something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. I’ve been thinking about how I treat people and how they treat me. I’ve also been thinking about how what we say can be so opposite to what we actually do.

I guess I can go around saying that I am against people being homeless and hungry, but that’s all just bunk unless I do something about it. I can also say that and then walk right by a homeless person on the street asking for money or food.

Tonight I went to help out at the Paulist Center’s weekly supper club, where the center prepares a meal for anyone who wants one. Many of the people are homeless and some of them just down on their luck. I helped to distribute meals to the people who came for the dinner. The work is hugely satisfying and it also made me think a lot about the people I was serving the food to. No matter what we all think, they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. It could be any of us with just a little misfortune that ends up in the same situation as the people who came to the center tonight.

Getting dinner ready: