On homelessness at Imbolg...some thoughts on charity and giving...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-42256546

On homelessness at Imbolg...some thoughts Iwill blame Chris Ramsbottom Pampling for giving me these thought.. I want to share some thoughts on giving to the homeless street people. In Norse mythology it was believed that Odin often came was a homeless man to check who gave without thought. In the Ukraine a couple of years ago a Pastor of a church disguised himself a homeless man and asked church members for help. They sent him away I give to individual homeless people but I do not give to charity. It is society tbat needs reforming and giving to charity imies that all is well and allows the individual giver to feel good. We should feel good because society is just..Charity originates in the religious notion that we have been given our status by divine decision. " The rich man in is his castle the poor man at his gate. He made them high or lowly and ordered tbeir estate" Homelessness is a situation that could happen to us all. It is not a life choice. ..it is the nature of our society.. it nearly happened to me.

In a society where an individuals house is seen as a measure of their stability and thrift..homelesdness becomes a horror and a fear. Many look away and claim that homelessness was a life choice. It was because they drank too much or made no provision for the difficult times. Yet so many of us are a couple of salary payments away from the same fate. Denial causes us to look away and judge the homeless. 

We must free ourselves from the obsession of home ownership. We must build social housing and recognise a warm home as a right for every citizen and not a reward for thrift and provisiona. Europe laughs at the property owning bluekippers who judge everything by the size or ownership of a house. A mass house building programme would create work ; stimulate the economy and make housing a right and not a reward. Housing should not be an asset, it should be a service and charity should be a job done by the state. In a world where the private rental market pushes the poor into an ever worsening cycle of lousy accommodation.. Housing benefit flows into the pockets of the wealthy. It should flow into an economy that builds houses and keeps people warm. I give to individual homeless people because so easily it could be me. We need to understand that the causes of homelessness is structural and not individual.

We should change society not blame the individual. We blame the individual because of our own fear and our own ignorance . I give to the individual homeless person but do not give to charities. Most charity shops today are staffed by those on probation or those forced to be there to recieve benefits. In a society with a citizens income and social housing ..charity woukd become a thing of the past..
I am the old Pagan at Imbolg I look for Odin in those I give to and I reflect it could be me. Then I campaign and write, inform and explain what could and should be done. I do not seek to make myself feel better by denial and avoidance. Charity is a grey heartless thing and not a means of entering eternity as a self justified and smug being . Homelessness could strike any of us at any time we should seek to protect all from it's possibility by creating a new society and a new outlook. It is likely that Christ with his mattered beard and his street people who were his disciples looked like the homeless. Mary Magdalene a crack addict who you walked past, who sold herself.. a smackhead some would say...Christ or Odin had more in common with the street people than charity has to the original words of Jesus Christ. It's Imbolg the light grows but it's bloody cold. ...change the world and use your imagination to be there in the shoes of the homeless. You walk in the foot steps of the holy revolutionaries...thrte us a world still to win and an understanding to share. Yep I am warm on the T6 and it was so cold at the Penrhos bus stop..imsgine tbat cold seeking in as you battle to stay warm.