No baby, No cry!
Sitting in my office thinking, “T.G.I.F.” Working hard while at the same time counting down the minutes till my 2 day vacation. Thinking about how great my foresight was in preparing the house for my relaxation over the weekend: the refrigerator is stocked full of food (I give myself a pass on healthy eating during vacations), my house-shoes are lined up right by the front door in order to cut down on the numbers of steps it would take for me to slip into them, the DVR is set to record my favorite shows, my wife and son are snuggled up together under a down blanket. I have envisioned it all, indeed, this will be a good weekend.
All of a sudden in the midst of my daydreaming, I hear a cry. Looking through my minds eye at the vision of the weekend, no one is crying there; my son is fed and dry and my wife is happy. Where is this cry coming from? All of a sudden I am snapped back into reality and realize that I am still at work…at PADS…In the middle of busy homeless season. The one I hear crying is the baby of a homeless family. How dare this baby, bustling with potential yet stifled by the reality of her family’s homelessness, interrupt the dreams of my perfectly planned and implemented weekend? How dare this infant initiate the echoes of the reminder that while I am on my 2 day get-away homelessness knows of no vacation? How dare this child chistle out a Blu-ray image in my mind of the far reaching effects of homelessness?
I am infuriated by the fact that these whines have penetrated my ears directly to the core of my soul and forced me to feel for the fears of this baby. What will she eat? Does she have enough diapers? Do her parents have the savvy to survive? How long has she been wearing that onesie?
All of sudden in the midst of my poverty filled pontificating the cries cease. Not long was the transition from fear to forgetfulness, from sadness to the stirring of my excitement for the weekend. Phew. Good thing those cries didn’t last long.
Wait. If I don’t hear the cries does that mean problem has gone away? If a baby cries in a homeless shelter and no one is there to hear her, does she make a sound? Good thing I have the option of putting aside philosophical platitudes of poverty stricken babies for at least 2 days. Good thing my surround sound will drown out the cries. Good thing it's not my child. Good thing it’s Friday. And on this weekend, no baby, no cry.
