Some of my best blokes and I were spending some quality time in Chicago this weekend (check out Shawn’s blog for more details).. Lots of laughs, lots of memories, and lots of gas. Correction; tons of gas. Most produced and executed by the Fox man.
Friday night we hit Blue Man Group and headed to Buca Di Beppo for a late night feast of Italian. It’s all family style at Buca and we ordered WAY more than we needed. Looking at the massive leftovers Shawn says “Box it up and let’s give it to a homeless person.” Sounded way better than the alternative of adding to the Chicago trash.
The bill was paid and we hailed a cab back to the hotel. Side note: it is legal to pile as many people as you can in a cab in Chi-town. One cabbies said he had carried 8 girls at one time. Can’t imagine that. There were 5 of us and it was highly challenging.
Back at the hotel (smack in the middle of Chicago) we looked for a homeless person to surprise with dinner. Problem was, we saw no homeless people. What? How is that possible? Shawn and I decided our mission was to find a homeless person. Two blocks later we saw a guy digging through a dumpster.
“Hey,” I said, “Are you hungry?”
He turned and looked at me. Shawn held up the bag.
“We have some great leftovers from dinner. They are all yours.”
Shawn handed him the bag and we started to walk away.
“Hey,” said the guy, “Would you invite me to eat this around your table?”
Shawn turned. He didn’t miss a beat. “If we had a table, you bet.”
We waved and turned back to where we came from. The homeless guy was not finished. I thought he had completed his sentence. He had merely paused. I can still hear the words ringing in the dim alley:
” . . . in your house?”
Shawn and I turn toward the guy holding the food. Shawn’s reply is one of the most genuine things I have ever heard:
“Absolutely. If I had a home near here, absolutely.”
We handed this guy some high quality dinner. It was probably still warm. It was way better than the bagels he was pulling from the dumpster. But he wanted something more than food. Like all of us, he was hungry for a human touch. A conversation. Someone to ask about his hurts, fears, and dreams. To pull up a chair. Put his feed under a table and share a slice of pizza and a slice of life.
Maybe feeding people is only part of the equation.
Was food designed only to sustain the body? Maybe it was designed to open an atmosphere of divine connection with each other and the creator.
Tonight I thought we were sent to feed a homeless man.
Tonight a homeless man fed me.
[tags]blue man group, chicago, church, god, jesus, homeless, buca di beppo[/tags]