Man in Red Cap

"Homeless, 
homeless, 
moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake...
strong wind, 
strong wind destroy our home, 
Many dead, 
tonight it could be you...
and we are homeless, 
we are homeless, 
sleeping on a midnight lake...
somebody sing hello, hello, hello...
somebody cry why, why, why?

~adaptation of lyrics by Joseph Sabalala and Paul Simon

I'm thinking about the homeless as I pack up some blankets today to take to a friend who will give them out tomorrow at the local soup kitchen just as I was when I did this painting of a homeless man lucky enough to have a red cap.  

I know of no place in the world that does not have homeless people.  What would it be like to be homeless, living on the streets?  Actually I was close to it for a while - I lived in a van for a while and it wasn't because I was traveling or on some exotic adventure.  I've lived high and I've lived pretty low and lived some in between too.  Living under those extremes gave me a different viewpoint than the average Joe.  Being homeless isn't just what it was like to be homeless, although that in itself is a real eye-opener as to what you have to do each day just to survive.  Another part of it is all the stuff that happened before you lived there - how you ended up without someplace safe to live. I thank God every day for the people that were kind to me, for the ones that found me and gently, respectfully, helped me find my way out of that abyss.

Oils on stretched canvas. 11 x 14 inches. 2008.