It was a glorious spring day in downtown Savannah and I was reminded again just how beautiful the city is. Moss draped massive Oak Trees and the sun shining through them so beams fell upon the children playing in the park. The weather was a pleasant 70 degrees and it seemed as though everyone was smiling.
I’ve made a handful of trips to Savannah over the past seven months but yesterday required an entire day. My friend and Union Mission Board of Directors Chairman John Tatum and I met for a long conversation, followed with my friend and accountant Carlton Hodges… then a delightful lunch with my dear friend Stacy Jennings of the Savannah Morning News.
At one point I was making my way through Forsyth Park and ducked into the café there for a drink. As I was leaving I heard my name yelled loudly, “MIKE!”
Turning around I saw the bright white happy smile on the dark black man. He ran across the room and we shook hands. Then he stepped back, looked at me still grinning and through his arms around me.
“I’m sorry,” he said loudly in my ear, “Rev. Elliott. We miss you!”
He stepped back still grinning. Over his shoulder I spotted his homeless friends who were seated at an outdoor table nursing their coffee cups. They could have been drinking coffee. I learned not to trust those first appearances a long time ago. It may have been beer in a coffee cup (Southern Baptist use the same kinds of tricks!). They all saw me looking and waved with grins.
“Hey Dave,” I said patting him on the shoulder. “You look good. You doing good?”
“I promise,” he said with sudden seriousness. “We miss you!” he repeated.
I nodded. “I miss y’all too. I gotta go Dave but there’ll be a visit soon.”
The smile returned to his face and I waved to guys behind him. Then I left.
And the truth of the matter is that I do miss them. I don’t miss much else…some of the people I worked with, people that I used to work with who aren’t at Union Mission anymore, and the challenges of it all. Mostly I miss the people who needed us.
It’s funny now. Homeless people go to the library a lot and while they used to read newspapers or books they now log on to the computers. They create Face Book accounts and send me friend requests. I accept and we carry on virtual conversations. They ask me questions and I give them advice. They also want to know about me. Like Dave they tell me that I’m missed.
A few are quite savvy about technology and have started their own blogs describing what it’s like to be homeless in Savannah and who cares and who doesn’t ( I was going to use different adjectives here but decided to keep it P.G for a former Board Chair who wishes to remain anonymous). It makes for fascinating reading.
Those last two years at Union Mission I was burned out. I did my best but there was nothing else to accomplish professionally and I had little left to give from inside. Keller Deal and I were doing creative stuff and though that was fun nobody around us seemed to get it. Most were thick and stuck in their ways and that is not how creation occurs.
At one point yesterday I reclaimed the Café Expresso as mine. It is a coffee shop on Chippewa Square. That last year at Union Mission I would arrive in Savannah, grab my lap top and Blackberry and start my work day there. I could no longer bear to go straight to the office. Burn out is a bitch (Ooops! Sorry former Board Chair who wishes to remain anonymous!) so I would have more coffee (the Breakfast Club starts it all) and answer emails and phone calls. So yesterday I did it again
Sitting there typing away my friend and Union Mission friend Curtis Faircloth came to me and we caught up with one another. Later Jacques Beauchamp and London Mainor visit for few minutes. They used to sponsor a Masquerade Ball to raise money for our work. It was pleasant being there interacting with the people that I used to interact with.
But the honest truth is that it is my homeless friends that I miss the most. They were forever wandering in and out of my office, stopping me on the street or taping letters to my door. They always got first preference because …well…that’s why we were there. That last year they were the reason that I kept showing up (other than the work Keller Deal and I were doing and the fact that I love a challenge...what’s $2.5 Million? We know how to do that! Hell! We’d just done it!).
Making my way back to the Sabbatical on Tybee Island I was thinking all of these thoughts and they made me smile. I looked up to the eye of God that was blazing at me like the sun and said out loud, “I hope someone there is still getting notes still taped to their door most every morning.” It’s a sign of trust.
Then I returned home away from it all. Goddess loved me like a monkey humper. I spent time with my daughter Kristen. Then I slept like a baby in baby land.
