There But For the Grace of God

 Good afternoon.  The heat just continues to build.  Sort of like summer is marshalling all of it’s forces to hand us a sort of last gasp of heat and humidity before the autumn breezes begin to blow and, hopefully, the autumn rains will come.  This time of year is an interesting time as far as weather is concerned.  Yes, the heat and humidity seem to go on and on without end.  Yes, it seems to be miserable outside.

But there are real changes taking place in the environment…changes that are happening because summer is actually winding down.  The tall grass in the park is shooting up seed pods.  Birds are finishing up raising their young.  Many plants are coming to maturity.  The summer grasses, Bermuda, buffalo, and others, are thoroughly enjoying outdoing the fescues.  The toad that sits under your porch light at night is getting fatter.  Even the constellations in the sky are changing to their fall displays.  It’s a great time to lose your summer doldrums and watch the creation as it morphs into a fall and then winter pose.

As part of this time of year…the extreme heat, I normally try to get my walking exercise in during the morning hours.  It was until a couple years ago that I could stop at Towne West shopping center and walk in comfort.  But that building has been sold and turned into basically warehouse space.  It’s no longer available to the public.

Sometimes, I can walk while still at home.  Other times, I’ll come to work, then walk downtown.  That was the case today.  I came in to work, then went for my walk.  As I was walking past the Garvey Center on West Douglas, I noticed a wallet on the sidewalk.  I thought about leaving it, but decided it was in good hands with me…I didn’t know who else might come by and see it.

I took it back to the church and looked through it.  Finding a drivers license, I tried to find the gentleman on social media.  I was unsuccessful at that, but I did have an address.  I decided to go there to see if he might be home.

Arriving there, I found a locked front gate, a rather dilapidated house, and a neighbor sitting on her front porch.  I went over to the neighbor and asked if she knew the man who lived next door.  She didn’t know much about him.  I told her why I was there and gave her contact information for the church, telling her that his wallet would be at the church if he wished to recover it.  She said she would tell him, and that was it.

I have never found anything like that in any of my walks before.  I have found maybe a coin or perhaps a nail in the street...something like that.  I'll usually pick those things up if I can.  But I’ve never found anything of real value such as that wallet.  Hopefully, he’ll get the note I left with the neighbor lady and retrieve his wallet.  If he doesn’t, I’ll take it to the nearby police station and leave it with them.

One other thing this hot time of the year does is bring out into more of the open those who have not been able to keep up their bill payments and their electric utility service has been suspended.  We’ve received several calls this summer from folks in that circumstance, and many more where the service is in danger of being discontinued because of non-payment.  We’ve had so much of that earlier this summer that we’ve had to discontinue our benevolence for a time.

Today, I received a call from a woman who, if she is telling me accurately, has been living without electric service since the end of March when the cold weather rule was discontinued.  They managed to find a generator to meet their basic needs, but now the generator is broken and they are totally without service.  There are two older people in the home…both of whom require medical services that need electricity.

I didn’t even ask how much they owed.  It doesn’t really matter.  If they owe, for example, one thousand dollars to get service started, that amount may well look like one hundred thousand dollars to them.  The mountain is insurmountable regardless.

My guess is it will be a long time before they are able to get electric service again, if ever.  I wonder how many households in the Wichita area are just like these people…service has been discontinued due to inability to pay, or who are in danger of having service discontinued.  What is the percentage of households who are living like this?  I’m thinking that number would be much higher than one might think.

If you are living with a roof over your head, with transportation, and in relative comfort, be thankful.  Just be thankful.  And be humble.  Then find some way to help support those who are not living with your level of comfort and convenience.  You know the old saying, “There but for the grace of God go I…”

 

Blessings