spare change?

I've always found it painful to see a homeless person. Something about seeing a once beautiful human being reduced to the shame of dirty clothes and asking for change breaks my heart.But I always saw them as a "them" not an "us".

And now I realize just how close that state of being is, for anyone really. A lost job, a foreclosure, a natural disaster, a mental or emotional breakdown....and that could be you or me. In fact, I'm already there, but instead of shaking my can for spare change, I go from one friend to the next asking for two thousand bucks to get through this month, or a thousand to fix the car and on and on. Thank you friends. Thank you for not abandoning me while I'm down. Thank you for keeping me from the freeway off ramp.

And now, the homeless, I see them as me, my brothers and sisters in this struggle for survival, just a few steps ahead of me on the road to decline, or a few steps behind me on the road to recovery...