Just Another Rainy Tuesday?

It’s a humbling feeling to go out on a night like tonight, while it is pouring out, to try and give out sandwiches. This is how one person in our group put it in our debrief tonight. As we huddled under the shelter of the Coop, we realized that we didn’t see that many people out tonight (which is amazing) and that the people we did see looked at us in a certain way. When we do guidelines right before the run, we always try to say “Don’t Pity” – that is try not to show it to the people we are talking to. One group walked up to a man standing just inside the cover of the Harvard T Station to give him some sandwiches. This man starred at us with a mixture of thanks and question. He looked at us because we were soaking wet, but still crazy enough to walk around with bags of food. Another man, who we see a lot, was out again tonight. This time, upon seeing us, he didn’t raise his head a start talking to us. But why should he? He was stuck outside in the cold rain, and nothing was going to change about that tonight. I hope that it does change soon for him, but tonight I don’t doubt for a minute that I would be acting the same way. Just walking around for half an hour makes clothes stick to skin, and people grumpy. Imagine having to sit outside in that all night. People don’t want to imagine it because it’s frightening. But it is very, very real.