“And he, he himself…The Grinch…carved the Roast Beast”

I had an interesting interaction with my landlady this morning as I was about to step out for a bit. After exchanging the usual morning pleasantries, she asked me what I was up to. Well, knowing this lady, I knew that this probably was not going to be just another ordinary discussion. Sure enough it did not take long for her to say something controversial. She  knows darn well that I do work alongside the houseless people in the city of St. Catharines. I was telling her how many of the people who live on the streets are similar to modern day Spartans, in terms of their ingenuity and pioneer resourcefulness. When a person is working with limited funds, materials, clothing, food, and drink, life can be a challenge. The fact that some of these people have limited intelligence can also play a role as well. Someone may have limited life experience. The bottom line is that even with their limitations whatever they may be, these people somehow find a way to continue existing from day-to-day, even under adverse conditions. As I said to her, if our worlds were to fall apart, and we were to find ourselves out on the street like they are, we would be able to learn much from them in terms of how to survive out there in the cold, cruel world of being unsheltered. Well, she could not leave what I had said well enough alone. She quickly had to point out to me that homeless people, (blatant generalization) know how to manipulate the system, and know how to obtain things through deceitfulness and treachery. She made it sound as though the ‘Homeless’ are the only ones that are dependent on an infrastructure to the point of being nothing but blood sucking parasites and nothing but a drain on the system. I stood there wondering if I had actually just heard what I had just heard. Maybe I’m wrong, but it sounded as though she was accusing anybody who happens to fall under the umbrella of being “Homeless” are nothing but people who truly are not worthy of a helping hand or any assistance. Knowing a thing or two about her background, I really was not surprised at the cold, heartless attitude that she possessed. The irony is, during World War II, her country was besieged by Nazi occupation and went through terrible hardships, probably unlike anything they had previously ever known. Thank God that there were those that had risked life and limb to liberate them from the evil  of Nazi oppression. Apparently, every year these particular people demonstrate a great deal of gratitude towards their Canadian liberators because they knew that without them, they’re suffering would have been prolonged far beyond the period of time they had to endure. Strange how certain individual that have seen such tough times can be so merciless and cold towards those that are suffering and experiencing hard times themselves. I guess their excuse would be that the circumstances are completely different. I’m not so sure about that one. Many people who live on the street have suffered different forms of attacks from of a variety of enemies. Some of these enemies could’ve been their own parents. Some of these enemies could’ve been close relatives. Another one of these enemies could be mental illness. No matter how you slice it, at some point, these people have suffered an attack and in many cases have been left ‘wounded and bleeding’. Hmmm. Sounds to me a lot like the man who was attacked in the parable of the good Samaritan. It doesn’t specifically say what nationality he was, but from the context of the writings, it would seem to indicate that he was a Jewish man. I guess the two individuals who had seen him lying there bleeding and wounded must have known something that nobody else did and decided to simply bypass the guy and not help him. It wasn’t until a certain Samaritan man decided to stop and help him and even continued to take care of him until he was healed and ready to carry on with his life. Isn’t it a shame that my landlady was not there to explain to the Samaritan that the man lying on the side of the road bleeding, wounded and near death could have probably taken a little better care of himself and that somehow what had happened to him was basically his own fault for not taking the necessary precautions to prevent himself from being attacked. In other words, he really should’ve known. Not only that, the Jewish man was probably really just hamming it up and decided to milk the situation, costing the Samaritan man extra money that he would have otherwise not had to have spent. Damn, I never thought of it that way before! It is amazing how people who are so tight fisted when it comes to helping those who they consider to be nothing but a bunch of ne’er-do-wells and scumbags, have a million excuses why they would not go out of their way to help anybody who falls into that category. It was at this moment that I realized that this person who we are renting off of in so many ways is reminiscent of the Grinch who stole Christmas, or ‘Ebenezer Scrooge’ who was irked by the fact that there are people in the world a hell of a lot more generous and joyful than they are. These self centered ‘Sympathy  Misers’ seem make it their goal is to somehow fine fault with anyone experiencing the joy that eludes them in their lives. 

I asked my landlady if she would be interested in reading one of my journals regarding my take on the homeless situation. She immediately demanded to know why, to which my response was that I felt her feedback could be valuable in helping me to form a more balanced perspective. She did agree, but I sensed she had done so more for ‘Political’ reasons, than because she actually really wanted to hear my opinions. Tell me please, someone, why the song ‘You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch’, keeps playing over and over in my mind? 

Please dear Lord, help the ‘Grinches’ and the ‘Scrooges’, who are the modern day ‘Priests and Levites’, see the error of their ways, do an ‘About Face’ and allow their ‘hearts of stone’ to become ‘Hearts of flesh’. 

In Jesus name, Amen.

August 30th, 2025

By Lucien ‘Looch’ Delean