I met 'Two Wheeler Greg' Christmas night, I had gone down to the DDC to try and be of service and to spread a Christmas cheer that I had missed all day long. I had gone through the motions, I had thoughly enjoy watching the look on my son's face as he routed through his gifts, but something was missing. I had lost my Christmas Spirit. I had stepped outside for a cigarette, and yes, I know it's a bad habit, and I hope to quit someday, but if I hadn't had stepped outside, I would have missed it. I quickly excused myself past a few folks, and was greeted with, 'you better say excuse me, do you know who he is?!' in a very crass New York accent. I quickly turned to see three men. A man about my age, a man in a wheelchair, and a man with a cane. The first man, was the one who had spoke to me, and so I turned to him, and quickly replied, 'I'm sorry, and no, I don't know who he is.' The first thought through my head,'great, this has been on of those days, it's Christmas, and I am gonna just top this whole stupid day off by getting into a fight at a homeless shelter.' The man with the New York accent quickly replied,'This is Two Wheeler Greg', motioning to the man with the cane, and then quickly motioning to the man in the chair,' and this is Larry the Angry Wheelchair Guy, they're gonna have their own cable talk show real soon.' I didn't know what to think, as I was trying to figure this whol thing out, Larry piped in, 'F you Tommy', to which in the blink of an eye Tommy fired back, 'Now that's why we call him Larry the Angry Wheelchair Guy', and then quickly flipping into a yiddish accent, looked at Larry, and rhetorted, 'now Larry, you know they're not gonna let you on national tv with language like that.' A smile started to spread across my face. As Tommy finished that off, Two Wheeler Greg, quickly chimed in, 'Yeah, and this is Tommy Bags, he's our publicist, but as you can see, he's not that good at it, since we all are homeless.' I barrel laughed. That began my friendship with the 3 of them.
Each one of them has a significant story behind the chain of events that led all 3 of them to survival on the streets, and I'm sure sooner or later their back stories will get out, but today I am gonna talk about my friend Greg. I have mentioned him before, he is one of the folks who is what I call my supply line. He is able to be my eyes and ears on the street to who needs what, where and when. There are so many stories I could tell you about him, and the funniest part, he doesn't tell them for the most part, it's the people that are his 'street family'. When you are homeless there is safety in numbers, and just like in other areas of society, it's all about making connections, except many of these conections, insure your survival. Necessities to survival can be difficult to come by in the shelter, sleeping bags, boots, socks, hats, gloves, and excedrin. In that, there become folks like Greg, when things are few and far between, he is there, with his Two Wheeler, the kind that you would put a couple of bags on at the airport. Funny part, Greg is very mobile on the street and buslines, so many of you may have seen him along the way, hauling his two wheeler, packed to the gills with various items. When you see him and those items you will probably assume that those are all his, well you're wrong, those are items that he has specifically amassed to supply those who need it most, and he is on foot, or bus route, delivering those items to folks who can't make it to him to get them. More than once I have seen someone come up to him, hug him, and thank him for whatever item he had found for them and how much it made the difference in their life. Things like, 'thanks dad, if I hadn't gotten that sleeping bag from you I woulda froze to death last night with that deep freeze that came in.' 'man, I don't know where you got that excedrin from, you were such a Godsend I had that headache for two days.' 'If I hadn't gotten them socks from you my feet woulda got frosbite for sure.'
The most endearing part of Greg, he doesn't have to be there, he is an intelligent man, with a good head on his shoulders. I asked him why he did what he did once. He just looked at me and said, 'I can't leave yet, God hasn't paved my way, alot of these folks depend on me for survival, when it's time for me to go, God will pave a way out of here for me, until then, they need me.' I have wandered with Greg on many occasions, I feel like he has just paved a path for me in there, we have held bible studies, debated theological questions, prayed for folks who needed it, and just shared our joy and faith in a God who loves us and walks freely through places that are often referred to as 'The Devil's Stronghold', 'The Gates of Hell', and 'The place where angel's fear to tread'. We are in agreement, yes, the shelters can be all of the above, but at the same right, it is a place where God, hope, and love are needed the most, and we both feel drawn if not called to be the bearers of that in this place, and in turn we both agree that we have been given a wonderful gift to be able to see on a daily basis, the miracles and wonders of God's grace, and the things that faith, hope, prayer and love can do. I have not been writing much since recently my laptop has deciced that it will only type out so much at certain times and then likes to go blank, in turn losing everything that I wrote, but I guess tonight I wanted to try and tell you of my friend and brother, Two Wheeler Greg, and it was a good night to type it out. One of the Gregisms I picked up along the way, 'You can make anything of life, wherever you are, I'm just thankful that God keeps on telling me, keep on going Greg, every morning I wake up that's His message to me, I know that, cuz I woke up.' I love each and every one of you and God does too.
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