My daily commute to work can take me along various routes, some determined by the weather others by my mood. After a busy day at work, my preference is a more leisurely ride home along tree lined streets through a quiet residential area. In the morning I tend to use the most direct route, busy Adelaide Street one of London, Ontario’s main thoroughfares. Driving along for about 8 km there is a constant change of the usual sort of sights. Apartment buildings, homes, shops, gas stations line the street. My least favourite part of this route are the railway tracks. However, my favourite, at least until very recently, has been a bridge spanning the road that lies beneath. It is not so much the bridge that is my favourite but the fascinating sight of hundreds of tiny birds most days perched on the wires spanning the bridge.
While I wait at the nearby intersection for the lights to turn green, I like to watch these birds, fascinated by how they huddle together on the wires, mostly all facing the same direction. On my early morning commute the sight of the bridge and the tiny birds has always been my favourite part. Until a few days ago when what is happening on the underside of the bridge made the evening news. Now I don’t know about you, but though I have driven across that bridge innumerable times over the past ten years, I have never given any thought to its underside since I have never driven on the road below.
There are usually two sides to every story, and there are two sides to the bridge. Above and below. Above the sky, the birds on the wires, my mind set on the day to come. Below, I learned this week, troubling things have been going on of which I was totally oblivious. Below, tragically, homeless people who have been seeking refuge. Safety concerns and damage caused to the bridge by those seeking shelter under the bridge has now prompted the authorities to take drastic measures. Security guards who have been hired have removed needles and other drug paraphernalia from beneath the bridge. “The city has hired the firm to keep the area clear of people because of recent vandalism to cement slabs under the bridge.” (London Free Press, 19 September 2019) Though the city is reaching out to these homeless people by providing housing through London Cares Homeless Response Services, the problem will not be solved over night. It will be a slow process.
So, I am asking myself, “What to do! What can I, what could all those who daily drive across this bridge spanning the ‘troubled water’ below, do to aid our less fortunate sisters and brothers? How can we bridge the gap between ‘those of us above and those below’?” I can no longer simply drive over the Adelaide bridge, merely enjoying those tiny birds on the wires as I used to do. Now, every time I cross that bridge, I wonder who might be evicted right there and then at the underside of the bridge. Whenever possible, I slow down and say a prayer for those who may continue to seek shelter right beneath me, waiting for help, waiting for a safe warm place provided by London Cares and other agencies reaching out, looking for long term solutions for our homeless sisters and brothers. Are any of us daily commuters willing to be that bridge over troubled water, ‘laying down’ for our sister and brother ‘down and out…on the street’?
Whatsoever you do for the least of my sisters and brothers, that you do unto Me.
- Sr. Magdalena Vogt, cps