I just watched a TED talk that I wish were longer than five minutes. “A glimpse of life on the road” by Kitra Cahana really was just a glimpse. You might as well watch it now:

I’ve lived in three cities with a large homeless population: Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and especially San Francisco. But somehow I’ve never mustered the courage to strike up a conversation with any people living on the streets. Really, I rarely muster the courage to strike up a conversation with anyone on the street at all. I need to defeat my shyness.

Anyway, Cahana’s talk makes me want to try harder. I wasn’t ever hostile to homeless people, and I try to empathize, but it’s only in my mind, and that does little or no good. Now that I live in Japan, and barely speak any Japanese, I probably can’t do much about this for a while. Especially since Japan seems not to have many homeless. I hope when I get back to at least say hello to some street people.

While looking for a video I saw recently of a woman explaining that she is not “homeless,” as her body is her home, and we all have a home, I stumbled on a brief story “What I Learned by Giving a Homeless Woman Shelter in My Home” by Gus Catalano. It was a nice read, and made me think about trying to start a campaign to inspire more people to open their homes and hearts. :-/