Content Living in a Pigpen

So church camp was a week ago and I could devote an entire blog to that, but I won't. Fr. David quoted a great little tidbit from C.S. Lewis (of course) about how we're too easily pleased with the pigpen that we live in and can't even imagine the goodness that was planned for us. To make a long story short, I'm far to easily pleased.

Along with that, I actually do live in a pigpen. My neighborhood sucks. It really does. I've grown up here and I feel like I have so much invested emotionally and I wish things would get better and I always try to tell myself that they will, but I know that it probably won't. It will probably get worse and we live in a fallen world anyways, so it's not like anywhere else would be paradise. Although it may seem like it in comparison.

So yesterday an elderly couple in our neighborhood was robbed at gunpoint by some punk kids for a few hundred bucks. I guess it was more like 900 bucks, which is another example of why old folks need to learn that banks do exist and won't steal your money. But that's beside the point. The point is that I live in a crappy neighborhood.

So here's an example of some of the exitement I get to witness because I live here: Last night I was driving home late at night and I happened to drive past a couple of prostitutes who were diligently working our streets. I drove past them and then pulled around the corner and parked my car, because I was home and that's what you do when you get home. Well, these two prostitutes saw me pull over and park and must have gotten the wrong idea, because they began looking for me.

I should back up a little bit. This has actually happened to me on one other occasion, so I was half expecting it this time. So when I parked, I hurried up to my house and into the screened porch before they turned the corner to see where I went.

So I stood there and watched as these two women scoured up and down the street for what must have seemed like a potential client. They must have thought I was hiding somewhere in order to be more discreet and avoid being seen by all of the concerned inhabitants of our neighborhood. It really was sad and I'm not sure why I even tell this story, but they spent a good ten minutes looking around my block and in my yard and around the car before heading back out to the major streets.

So what's the point of all this? I have no idea. What am I supposed to do? How do I help? What's the point of living in a neighborhood like this if I'm not going to do anything to make a difference? I should just move to Carmel. I love this neighborhood and all of the crap I've had to deal with over the years. I just don't know how to change it. Or maybe I do know and I'm just too scared to make those changes in my own life.