On a windy day like this, I sat in front of my computer and browsed the New York Times. I remember having to do this for class back when I was an undergrad and the articles always seem to have the same words, war, hate, crime, death—all these words seem to be on every article posted on the site—that and the Oscars (I agree with you, Milena, finding something else is pretty impossible right now). So I browsed and browsed and stumbled up an interesting title, Charity Begins With a New Home for a Lost Scarf. The title is catchy so I decided to look into it. It was a diary entry of sorts about a woman named Josie who never left her home without a bag of clothes to give to those less fortunate who happened to cross her path. Throughout the years she kept doing this and actually got to know some of the homeless people by name. The narrator goes on to say that when her son, Peter, came back from a trip, he couldn’t find his cashmere scarf and thought it lost. A whole holiday season went by and the scarf wasn’t found. It was until one day in the spring when Peter, and his mother Josie were on a walk that Peter found his scarf wrapped around the neck of a homeless man named Bill. Peter continues to say that he made it a point to tell his mother that he had been looking for that scarf, but his mother’s response was a simple, “It looks so nice on Bill, doesn’t it, dear?”
I would like to call Josie a positive deviant and even though she is not with us anymore, I would like for all of us to remember this part of her life. Imagine anyone of us leaving home with a bag of clothes and just giving it out to those we see need it? I point the finger at myself. Sometimes I have the luxury of getting rid of clothes without thinking that someone might need them. Josie thought of the homeless people constantly and took a bag of clothes every time she went out. She saw those she helped as people, not as people to be ignored. I’ve heard people calling the homeless “dirty,” but Josie didn’t see them that way. She didn’t avoid them either like so many people do. She helped them the only way she was able to help them and that cashmere scarf was one of the highlights of her work.
Tucson, Arizona is the place of residence to another positive deviant who has gotten herself in trouble with the law all because she feeds homeless people. L. Karin Elliot cooks meals in her home and twice a week gives these meals out to homeless people at some city parks. It is reported that in the past year alone she fed over 3,000 people. It was major story. This act of kindness was not overlooked and there was some coverage to Karin’s story, but not without consequences. Since then the county has told her she is violating food code and will not be allowed to feed the homeless because they received an anonymous complaint regarding her work. According to the country, they just want her to be in compliance.
I remember watching this story on the news. I thought it was an amazing thing this woman was doing. She cooked the meals, delivered them, all without earning a single cent. She did it out of love and respect and now she is facing the challenge of not being able to carry on with her work all because of an anonymous complaint. The story had no end. Nowhere did it say that Karin was going to give up and not hand out her home-cooked meals to the homeless anymore. I do believe she will keep fighting in order to hand out her meals to those she knows need a hot meal at least once a week.
The world needs more positive deviants like Josie and Karin.
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