Comfort

Tonight we talked about comfort levels. One group experienced a man who came up to them at the end of their run and began to sing to them. The only thing is, he moved very close to some of the people in the group and it might have made them feel uncomfortable. They were faced with the daunting question of “What do we do?”. Luckily, the man just sang for a few seconds and then they were able to walk away. But it was still hard, even in the debrief, to come up with a truly good way to deal with someone crossing into your comfort zone. The other group had the opposite experience. There is a man that has become a familiar face on one of the routes and we have started to talk to him regularly. People feel comfortable going down to him and having a conversation with him. Tonight he got excited that we had juice, but at the same time he made sure that we left some for the people who were sleeping around him. I know that it must have taken him a while before he was truly comfortable talking to us with the ease that he does.
It just goes to show you that sometimes you have to slowly get used to a person (or people) in order to trust them. Comfort is something that cannot be thrown at you. When out on the streets, one can imagine the difficulty they must have with finding trust and comfort in other people. Belief in the kindness of the human nature is all they have, and it’s something that we can help kindle.