the longest night.

so tonight is the winter solstice....the longest night of the year....and not a good time to be homeless in the pacific northwest. not that anytime is...but this time of year especially, with the cold and the rain and the long nights, is especially hard on the homeless population of our area. it is an issue that has been weighing on my heart recently. partly due in fact to a book ("breakfast at sally's" by richard lemieux, if you haven't heard of it check it out, it's awesome!) and partly because it has been in the spotlight a lot recently at our church. i went to the "Longest Night" Homelessness Vigil tonight at first christian church of bremerton. it was an hour long service *outside* (brrr!) to recognize the hardships faced by the homeless in our area and to pay homage to the homeless who have passed away in the last year, often unrecognized. it was a beautiful, simple candlelit ceremony. it would have been perfect. except, about halfway through the service, some JACKASS (oops, i'm sorry, is that not the loving, christian thing to call him? okay, an extremely manners-challenged individual) came out on his porch from across the street and starts yelling.

"HEY! you church people over there! i know this car belongs to one of you! it's blocking my driveway, come move it now!"
2 seconds later: "i KNOW this car belongs to one of you church people over there! come get it NOW or i'm having it towed!"

ugh. for a minute everyone just kind of stood there dumbfounded, in awe of the lack of common decency this person was showing. just before this guy started screaming, the pastor had been speaking of remembering the homeless in our prayers. a minute after this guy goes off on his tirade, one of the parishioners said "and yet another person we need to pray for extra hard." that kind of broke the silence and everyone started giggling a little. the irony of the situation? the screamer did not even have to go anywhere. he didn't leave after making a woman go move her car. idiot.

it was still a beautiful and moving service though.