Post Script

A brief post script to the prior post.

Like any good movie, Into the Wild continues to reverberate in my mind, days after I've seen it. As I walked downtown today, I passed the usual scraggly, smelly panhandlers and beggars. A few are witty. Some are incoherent. A few actively solicit money. Most just stand on a corner, looking hopeless and exhausted. Others stroll around or meet together near alleyways. Most, obviously, have serious mental and/or drug and/or alcohol problems.

On the other hand, I note that they look no different from Chris McCandless, as he walked the streets of San Diego, trying to find a place to sleep. Who knows, one of these dirty, bearded men toting a bulky backpack may himself be a straight-A graduate from a prestigious college, just out "finding himself" for a year or two. The movie reminds us not to judge a book from its cover.

And what about the 99 percent who are not waiting for an admissions letter from Harvard Law? The ones who are druggies or mental cases, or just the victims of very bad luck? October 4 was the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi. You'd never know it from the statues of St. Francis that you find, along with the gnomes, in middle class gardens, but Francis rebelled against his wealthy, middle class father, and the world of luxury into which he had been born. He founded a religious order based on daily begging in the streets. He gave away everything he had, and embraced voluntary poverty. He loved animals and nature. His life reminds us of the Christian teaching that every man and woman -- whether rich or poor, clever or an idiot -- is of equal value before God, and, as our fellow human being, before us as well. This idealistic teaching, of course, is also the foundation stone of democracy, the principle behind the rule of "one-man, one-vote."

I still recoil with distaste from contact with filthy clothes, smelly bodies and unpredictable behavior. Chris and Francis remind me that this is my problem. Quit being so damn superficial. Get over it.

I'll try harder.