Along the side of the road

The fledgling I had tossed to the grass in the morning had made its way back to the side of the road.

The semester continues to steadily march onward! Here are a few snippets collected from the past few months:

It was a foggy and misty spring morning, just the kind you’d expect after a night of studying for final exams. As I prepared to make one of the sharpest turns of my commute, a fledgling bounced onto the middle of the road, just ten feet in front of me. My first instinct was to swerve my bike to avoid the bird, but in several seconds, I was making a round-about turn back to the helpless creature. Stopping in the middle of the road next to where the fledgling had landed, I got some funny looks from cars that rode around the peculiar scene. Scooping the bird up with a few twigs, I wondered what I ought to do with the misplaced creature. I had an exam to go to and couldn’t devote the day to understanding where he came from and how to resolve the dilemma. Placing the fledgling to a grassy spot 50 feet from the road where I found him, I continued my commute, hoping that it would remain there until my ride home in the evening.

I passed through Byrd Park and made my way to a back street paralleling the interstate. Approaching the assisted living facility along my route, I spotted a middle-aged African American whose greeting I’ve come to anticipate. Between 6am and 6:45am, he takes his morning smoke. Unless the weather is a lot cooler, he typically dresses in a white t-shirt and either sporty sweat pants or jeans. When he notices me approaching about 50 feet away, he often stretches his arms out in a star-fish pose and booms in a deep voice, “Gooood Morning!” In a different setting, his demeanor would suggest that he was a retired football player or lead basketball coach. I wave and offer a morning greeting as I ride on by, while he remains with his hands stretched out; I’ve wondered what might happen if I stopped to engage with my friend beyond a greeting...Would I try to resolve the mystery of why a seemingly healthy adult is residing in an assisted living facility? Would I simply respond to his star-fish pose with a bear hug and be on my way?

Upon my ride home that evening on a slightly different route, I encountered my morning greeter walking from one of the corner shops with a black bag in hand, which I assumed contained a supply of cigarettes that his pension allowed. He was very displeased with an old lady who slowly made a turn without allowing him to walk across the street. Making a somewhat intimidating advance at that car, he made his way to the other side just as I passed by on my bike. I did not want to show my discomfort with his frustration and signaled a greeting without looking at him by lifting up several fingers from my handlebars as I rode onward.

Reaching the bend at which I encountered the fledgling that morning, I spotted it dangerously close to the road, scrunched up as if it was cold or dehydrated. Horrified that it would only take a foot or two before a car could easily run over the bird, I parked my bike near the tree to which the fledgling likely belonged and wondered what I’d do. There were two dead adult birds on the side of the road, one of which had similar markings to the fledgling, making me assume that this bird was on its own for survival. With a little resistance I scooped it into my backpack using a twig with some leaves and rode home to give it some water. Spending an hour or so researching how to care for birds in this situation, I was discouraged that I may not find a definitive solution to the problem. Feeding it some more water, I resolved to return the bird to its original vicinity and let “nature take its course.” After all, I had a pharmacology exam to study for and couldn’t let fledglings falling into my path distract me.

 

The top of Esperanza Health Center boasts a great view of the city of Philadelphia

City Hall displays this plaque...the wish of the city's fore-fathers

Several weeks later, I visited a faith-based health center in Philadelphia, rooming with a nurse and dentist from the clinic who both lived in a rough neighborhood near the clinic. They told me about the rowdy 18-year old who seemed to constantly be at their house. They had met him when he fell out of the top story of his house and needed medical treatment. Since then, he’d considered himself adopted by the clinic and the two women. His interactions with them suggested a deprivation of attention and sense of being valued. They hoped that his deficit of feeling cared for would eventually become filled so that he could understand how to care for others.

Spending the evening in the Kensington neighborhood, I realized that the presence of drugs was what sustained the community, both economically and socially. As I headed out of the district on my car the next morning, I realized that it was not difficult to spot drugs being sold on one corner and administered on another. Even amidst this unpleasant reality, I valued the presence of people on the sidewalks, greeting one another, and children playing on the dusty streets. As I stopped at an intersection, I noticed who I thought was a teenager lying on the sidewalk, barefoot. I wondered if his parent would be concerned but realized within 30 seconds that this individual was an adult who was under the influence of some substance. He would get up from the ground, make a few incoherent steps, grip his head with both hands, and trip over to end up even closer to the street. Looking around to see if others were responding to the scene, I assumed that this was a normal occurrence. Hitting the lock button on my car door, I anticipated the stoplight turning to green so that I could continue my departure from the dusty and bewildering city.

­­­­­­­

Shakespeare might have been on to something...

These road-side encounters have made me wonder about Jesus’ itinerant ministry. He routinely interacted with strangers on levels that society had refused to. Jesus was also known to notice the sick and respond to them with healing as he traveled onward. I wonder what this might mean for us today as we participate in a fast-paced society that seldom facilitates unplanned encounters.

One author describes discipline (and he’s referring to the spiritual disciplines) as the way of creating space for God to do His work. As we commit our lives to be kingdom-builders, let us have eyes to see and ears to hear those that we encounter along the side of the road.