Person For a day Assignment - I Wish to be...

Sometimes we reach that point in our lives where we wish we could be another person. Many people wish to be that famous pop star the paparazzi love, the actress others of the opposite sex are always talking about, or the Olympian who takes the gold at every meet. I wish to be something different ….someone different. I wish to temporarily be the homeless man on the corner. Yes, the one you mock and put down. I wish to be him.

I wish to be that “hobo” that teaches us how to love. The man who has been hurt so many times yet still has the strength to smile at those who pass by, even those who do not stop to offer money, food, or a helping hand. I want to learn how to love unconditionally the way he has learned to do. I want to learn how to love those who pay no attention to the desperate cries and outreaches around us. To love not only those who love you, but also the ones who despise you is a beautiful and amazing gift that is hard to acquire. No one knows how to love the people who throw their mistakes in their face and mock their debilities. It is obtained through life lessons.

I wish to be the man who lost everything he once lived for and still finds reason to live. The man who shows that being strong is about much more than our own decisions and self control. He is the person who will show me how to find to the hope that I thought was lost. He is the person who will teach me to find courage in that dark alley to sleep there, and the audacity to hold that sign and collect the money from the giving souls. This “hobo” is the man who will train me on how to forfeit my own pride and greed to feed the mouths of the children, mothers, and fathers that are no longer capable of doing so themselves.

I wish to be a homeless man because the homeless man is the preacher. He is the spiritually tough man who finds God in the dark alleys where he made his bed from a box. He is the one on the street holding that piece of cardboard asking God to bless you. It asks God to bless you who returned his weary smile. It asks God to bless you who handed him the spare change in your vehicle. Furthermore, it asks God to bless you who pretended not to see him as you sat next him at the red light anticipating the moment when the green light freed you.

I don’t want to be a pop star. I don’t want to be an actress or an Olympian. I don’t even want to be homeless. What I do want is to trade places with the homeless man. I want to experience his struggles and hardships. I want to endure what he suffered in order to acquire the unconditional love, the strength and courage, and the spirituality I saw in his eyes when he asked God to bless us. A night of hunger and sleeping under a bridge…I would tolerate this if it would teach me the lessons and give me the strength many fail to acknowledge.