Socks

"Socks."  That's what I call him.  He's the Albanian who needed a pair of socks before he went to the hospital in despair and with badly swollen feet.  Down on his luck, so oppressed by depression that he's been on disability for much of his life in America.  He grew up in a town in Albania not too far from the town that Mother Teresa came from.  Usually when beggars come by they seem, if one can be judgmental for a moment, like scam artists.  The Lord doesn't want us to sit in judgment of others, I know, but that sentiment pops up a number of times.  "Socks," however, seems like a different kind of hard luck story.  I told him, "Perhaps Mother Teresa sent you here."  (So: Mother Teresa, if that is so, then please intercede for Socks.)  After Socks got out of the hospital he met and introduced me to a lady who describes herself as an "Episcopalian Buddhist who sings in a Lutheran choir."  Very Boulder.  I've run into such folks before.  She says she was impelled by "desung" to help him.  "Desung" is a Buddhist call to assist in situations where the well-being of individuals, groups and the community as a whole is disturbed.  So Socks introduced me, through his new friend, to a whole new world of "desung," of people who actually do what Jesus told us to do: care for the poor; and who's poorer that someone suffering from mental distress as Socks does?  Or, in the words of Jesus, "When you throw a party, don't invite your relatives and friends.  They can repay you.  Rather, invite those who cannot repay you.  And your heavenly Father will repay you in the resurrection of the just."  This reminds me not only to care for the poor, but also to encourage all of us to be grateful for our mental health.  So often we take it for granted.