My heart felt despair. Yesterday, I opened the editorial page to see if there was more to the clothesline saga. And when I began reading Mrs. Johnson’s “My Nickel’s Worth” entry, I thought it was a joke. I thought someone was using sarcasm, such as that found in “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift, which urged people to eat babies to alleviate overpopulation of poor people. But she was serious. The sight of people in desperate situations caused Mrs. Johnson to lose face in front of her visiting guests. And then I recognized that it was a problem in my heart as well.

Any of us who can recognize the repugnance we feel when approached by the homeless are in need of prayer. If we’re Christian, or Jewish, Unitarian, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Catholic, we’ve forgotten the basic tenets of the teachings in these religions. We need compassion, forgiveness and generosity. We need love in our hearts.

To hide the problems in a community is to ignore them. If there are homeless people, it is because they’ve had insurmountable problems. I can’t imagine that any of the homeless wouldn’t just love a room to call their own, out of the elements. But because of a myriad of problems (child abuse, war-related, post-traumatic stress syndrome, mental illness, a devastating turn of events such as loss of employment or health, lack of family support, death of loved ones), they feel they have no options. Except perhaps to numb themselves from the cold (with alcohol and/or drugs). The cold comes in many forms, from temperature to cold-heartedness. Have we really made the decision to protect our monetary interests in this wealthy community rather than the people in our community?

“Whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren, that you do unto me.” Let’s begin our prayers with forgiving Mrs. Johnson’s and our own loss of perspective. Let’s pray that we find compassion in our hearts. Generosity comes in many forms.

If someone’s having a bad day, a smile is generous. Being thoughtful is generous. A friend of mine gives all out-of-town guests a $1 bill to take back to their communities to put into little cans on grocery store counters which say things like “Little Kyle needs a bone marrow transplant. Please help.” In this way, her generous good wishes for her friends’ communities are impacted in a small but significant way.

She sends her love from Poughkeepsie, N.Y., into Florida, Oregon, California, Nevada, Colorado and other states by doing this. I saw a college student walk up to a sleeping homeless man and carefully tuck a freshly baked loaf of bread under his arm for him to eat when he woke up. This is community. This is generosity, forgiveness and compassion. We need to start with ourselves, and then it is likely to spread to others. This is prayer. These actions inspire me.

Instead of darkness eating at our hearts, we who have enough to eat and adequate shelter and education should step up to the plate and volunteer our efforts to make this a better community (as opposed to hiding the homeless, lest they cause us shame). I hereby challenge The Bulletin to print a weekly column titled “Our Neighbors” or some such, showcasing what a person in this community is doing to make it an even better place to live. Is it someone picking up trash alongside the roadways? Someone volunteering/advocating for abused and neglected children in the court system through CASA? Perhaps it’s someone who’s collecting warm winter coats and sleeping bags for the downtrodden. Or a volunteer SMART reader at children’s schools. I think a column like this would lighten our hearts, inspire our participation and increase our creativity in ways to help our community. This is so much better than sitting back and complaining. What do you say, Bend? How about you, Bulletin? Let us pray — with our attitudes and our actions.