These articles originally appeared in “The Alley,” the newspaper for the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis.
As a kid, I used to be fascinated by anthills. I constantly wondered how animals with such tiny brains and no obvious ways of communicating on a large scale could create such a complex society. It wasn’t until I grew old enough for deep theological reflection that I realized my view of the ants was …
I recently attended a webinar hosted by the National Alliance to End Homelessness. The discussion focused on how housing advocates can speak about Housing First programs to gain support for those programs from the general public. (For this article, you don’t need to worry about what Housing First is, because that isn’t the point of …
Lately, the negativity of the world has affected me more than usual. Over the last few months, several supporters and members at Peace House Community have died or experienced some form of trauma. World news has been bleak. The mornings are darker and colder. Sadly, I’m one of the fortunate ones, as I know many …
After the doom and gloom of my last few columns, I wanted to write something a little more upbeat this month. Based on my current thoughts, I may not succeed, but by the end of this article I will try to have found a ray of hope. At the end of July, I travelled to …
Recently, a discussion about bathrooms at Peace House Community took a strange turn. I and several community members were talking about the problem we have with individuals camping out in the bathrooms. We have two bathrooms and we serve about 120 members a day, so we need everyone to get in and out quickly. The …
This morning, one of Peace House Community’s members stopped by to say hi. He hadn’t been here for a few months, and I was glad to see him. When I asked how he was doing, he smiled, said, “I’m doing alright”, and held up his hands to show me that all his fingers had been …
Decades ago, I heard my supervisor speaking with a friend about their respective marital troubles. They had very different challenges in their marriages, but they understood each other’s struggles. Being young, single, and stupid, I made some naïve comment that was meant to be helpful. My supervisor laughed at my ignorance and commented, “When it …
Occasionally, you come across wisdom in such an unexpected place that you don’t notice it until later. It’s like driving past something quickly and then thinking “Did I just see …?” I had this experience recently when I ran across one of the best commentaries I’ve ever heard about what matters in a relationship. Some …
During a recent discussion at Peace House Community regarding our favorite board games, one of our volunteers brought up some experiments that showed that people who felt they were richer than those around them became less compassionate and less willing to help others. If you’re wondering about the connection between the two, one of the …
I just came from a meeting of the Native American Unsheltered/Opioid Crisis Response group. We discussed the need for more messages encouraging people not to use drugs, rather than focusing on using drugs safely. The harm reduction approach (helping people use drugs safely to reduce the negative consequences of drug use – like death – …