Setting Prisoners Free

There he sat... Hunched up alone On Chicago's brutal concrete Ignored by the vast majority Greeted by a compassionate few There he sat... Minute after minute Hour after hour Day after day Week after week There he sat... Withering into the rugged landscape Staining his fingers with endless cigarettes Enduring summer's humidity and winter's howling winds Living with his endearing smile and pleasant greetings. It was 2007. Day after day, Frenchie sat on the corner of Wilson and Sheridan fading into the landscape. His thin body was getting thinner, his sunken eyes were sinking deeper and his dirty clothes were caked in grime. Yet, Frenchie always greeted us all with a smile and his kind-hearted comments. As he sat, those of us who passed him daily grew to love him and his softly spoken greetings. He wasn't a nameless invisible soul to us, he was Frenchie. By merely sitting there, he had captured our hearts. My children and other kids knew him, and felt...

This picture is hard to briefly describe in words, because of everything it symbolizes to me!  This man, holding his key to his new apartment, symbolizes an abundance of hope, love and a network of people coming together for him! Yes, for him.... My friend pictured here, was a symbol of utter despair and rejection: he was homeless for what seemed like an eternity (he'd even lost count of the years he's been living on the streets), he is unable to read or write, he has a devastating mental illness, a chronically bad addiction to alcohol and a ton of physical ailments due to his age, love of beer and his 2 decades of homelessness. When you consider all this, and the fact he's also been repeatedly assaulted and stomped upon, simply because of "who he is", you cannot help but see all the despair and rejection staining his worn-out body!  This man, my friend, symbolizes and is the very picture of the fragile people I advocated for in my last post: Stomp...