Homelessness Hunger Strike Relay - Day 5

http://www.2010homelessness.ca/

Today wasn't too bad. I'm definitely low on energy, but then again my daily activity level sometimes is pretty ambitious. I spoke with another 'relay team member' as she was finishing her week a while back. She reflected on the experience and we shared how multifaceted this hunger strike action is.

The issue of homelessness is certainly big enough to warrant our attention to take action. I believe that any action we take collectively changes all who are involved, and changes us in ways we cannot anticipate. Linking two things that should be our right as human beings - housing and food - with political pressure has brought together a wide variety of people and shown them and others our capacity for caring and solidarity. For this indeed is an action of solidarity. While we may say it's a small token action, it is still important. Those of us who are housed and fed everyday cannot really experience what it means to live so precariously but I believe the effort of making such a sacrifice, even for a week, resonates deeply. It is tangible.

My fellow team member, who I don't know for sure but suspect is not a Christian, was able to make the link also with the tradition of religious fasting. (I know that fasting is not just a Christian practice but that's the example she used.) As I understand it as a religious practice, fasting (usually accompanied by prayer and reflection/meditation) is an attempt to bring us closer to God, to be more receptive to the wisdom of the Creator. Well I think that fits very well with this action. As a Christian my basic belief is that we were all created in the image of God (not the body image, not the gender, but the spiritual image) and that our primary purpose is to honour God as we find God in all our fellow humans. Forcing our physical bodies to feel something other than satisfaction by not eating does provide opportunies to contemplate what this is all about. I don't know that other participants would consider that a religious experience but it fits into my reality exactly like that.