Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
Since publishing Strangers at My Door six weeks ago, I’ve had the chance to tell stories of formerly homeless folks who’ve lived with us at Rutba House–women and men who’ve invited me into their world, become friends, and changed my way of seeing.
Whenever I tell these stories, someone asks what hospitality might mean for them.
So I tell them about how, in the city where I live, we’ve been trying to change a law that makes it illegal to beg on our major streets. Because all of us need to be interrupted by the stories of people who’ve fallen through the cracks. Because the person who asks for change is inviting you into a relationship.
Because we need one another. And we need public spaces where we can connect.
Today the good folks from StoryCorp sent me this short film of a story that says this better than I can. I love it that this is a story about a begger who met a passer by on the same road where we did civil disobedience earlier this year opposing a law that would have made this interaction impossible.
Merry Christmas.
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