Street Stories

Weblog of Seattle minister to the homeless Rick Reynolds, Operation Nightwatch

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Location: Seattle, Washington, United States

Caring for human beings seems like the best use of my time, homeless or not.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Sin Boldly

Father Kim & I brought Shawn with us for his first night out.

It seemed like an average night -- could have easily stayed for hours at MFQAT. There wasn't much shaking at Dravus Street bar in the Interbay neighborhood. It really is a Jekyll & Hyde sort of place -- more Hyde than Jekyll too. It was pretty dead. Did not stay long.


On to My Favorite Queen Anne Tavern. Talked Jazz with Red -- aspiring tenor sax. Lumberjack told the story again about telling his dad he didn't like Olympia beer when he was nine years old. "What kind of beer DO you like?" his dad asked. He drinks Pabst now, $2 I think. Saw the couple I'd been missing; figured out we were coming later to MFQAT since the reopening because of adding the Dravus Street place, which is why we haven't seen them. They head in relatively early. "ER" fans is what they told me a long time ago. I think they're the only people to quote Luther back at me: "Sin boldly and love more boldly still." I may not be right about the quote -- the bain of being a minister in a bar is the pressure to be knowledgable about everything from the history of the Crusades, pop culture, theology, to Agnus Dei and the Illuminati. Invariably someone will catch me in my ignorance (I'm pretty out there about it, actually) and give me the old "You call yourself a minister and you don't even know about the Knights of Pythias" routine.


Social worker Joe Martin at Pike Market Medical Clinic is a great advocate for homeless people.


Downtown was pretty wacked, this being the first of the month and some people had too much money, lots of action on the street. D. in the bar decided he'd had enough, and started closing about 11:00. Shawn learned that there is an art to disengaging with a drunk who is drunk and or high. Gave DaNang and friend a ride back to his place, finally getting the drunk to leave us alone. Not sure what he was angling for -- but we weren't going to give him money, gave him advise about finding shelter for the night -- DESC is pretty vacant tonight. He was sceptical about walking in, but I had a car full and wasn't interested in hauling him back to Nightwatch.

Ended up being a later night than I thought it would be. After the friendly banter with DaNang I thought I better remind him that I love him. He has a good heart. Lousy brain, but good heart.
Rick

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