I've had the opportunity to spend time with Angela Hopson and SOAR: Street Outreach Animal Response Initiative, an organization that works with homeless individuals to preserve the bond between that person and their dog or cat.
In my short time traveling with Angela I have visited homeless camps and spent time with the unique people that call those camps home. On a material level their world and mine are incredibly distant. On a human level I see people that might be my neighbors, friends, or relatives if not for a societal choice that they have made or that was made for them by a god who built each of us with slightly different parts.
Every day Angela and her associates reach out with love and understanding to members of society that most of us never see; and if we do stumble across them, dismiss as being beneath us. While her focus is their pets, it extends into the physical and mental care of the people that are emotionally dependent on those animals. She is an amazing individual.
I don’t need to understand the choices of the homeless, but rather need to accept them without judgement.