"Catch and Release"

   At first, Denver plays the "tough guy" out on the streets, who is feared by everyone.  However, this widespread fear doesn't stop Ron.  Ron pursues Denver and appears to be making little headway, when Denver finally opens up to Ron.  In one conversation over coffee, Denver responds to Ron's desire for friendship by stating, "If you is fishin for a friend you just gon' catch and release, then I ain't got no desire to be your friend...but if you is lookin for a real friend, then I'll be one.  Forever. (Pg. 107)"

   The "catch and release" mentality consumes today's culture.  People buy clothes, toys, gadgets, and other popular items, only to discard them soon afterwards.  Certain desires consume so many until they are fulfilled.  People feel that "if I only had the fastest/biggest/smartest....I would be happy."  However, they find that after the initial excitement wears off, there is little appeal; they come to want the next new thing.  Instead, our culture needs to foster the mentality of "catch and keep."  Our fellow citizens must look to focus on loyalty and commitment.  If loyalty and commitment are the focus, relationships and the all-around purpose for life significantly improve.  Instead of "showing off" a prize (only to discard the item soon afterward), this new focus would cultivate an ultimate "prize" lasting for an entire lifetime.  The wisdom in Denver's words are incredible.  His statements calls us to remember to treat fellow neighbors/friends/individuals around us with loyalty and commitment, not build a shallow facade of a relationship.  The relationships we put the most time and effort into are the most likely to succeed.  If you make loyalty and commitment a priority in your relationships, people will want to be your friend and will actually be willing to invest back into you.


Russell Madden describes the importance of loyalty in friendship:
http://home.earthlink.net/~rdmadden/webdocs/Friendship_and_Loyalty.html

A New Perspective

   When Ron and Deborah first began to volunteer at Union Gospel Mission, one particularly disgruntled man expressed his opinion of them.  He said, "I don't know who you folks are, but you think you're doin' us some kind of big favor.  Well, tonight when you and your pretty little wife are home thinkin you're better than us, just think about this: You miss a coupla paychecks and your wife leaves you and you'll be homeless-just like us! (Pg 87)"  

   

   This statement speaks volumes to all of us.  Often times, when we volunteer or do a "good deed" for the homeless, we believe we just did them a huge favor.  We have temporarily “improved” their living condition, so these individuals should be forever indebted to us.  Although we may truly have compassion for those in need, we help…and leave.  To distance ourselves from their problems, we spend a few hours serving them, then we quickly return to our comfortable lives.  We automatically assume that the individuals in these positions are drug dealers, prostitutes, gangsters, or beggars and somehow deserve to be in their lowly state.  However, I believe the statement above drives us to the conclusion that just because someone is homeless, doesn’t mean that they aren’t human like us.  Something beyond our control could occur and we would wind up right beside them.  

   Instead of believing that we are changing someone else’s life by our “good deed,” I believe we should instead realize that they are changing ours.  By serving the homeless, we find ourselves more grateful and with more compassion towards others.  These desires bring us closer to the heart of God as we pursue “God’s people” as Deborah dubs them.

Wayne Teasdale's "A Different View of the Homeless: A Light in the Street":
http://www.grandtimes.com/A_Different_View.html

Union Gospel Mission

    After over 20 odd years of living on the streets, Denver had straggled into Union Gospel Mission.  Denver said, "I put my blankets on the concrete next to a old empty building across from the mission.  Mr. Shisler the manager of the mission, told me over and over  I didn't need to be sleepin outside in the weather.  After some years went by, I let him give me a bed.  He let me clean up around the mission for my keep. (Pg. 80)"  Eventually, Denver encountered Ron and Deborah Hall at the mission.

   At first, Ron, was skeptical of the idea of volunteering at the mission.  He construed, "The mission, on East Lancaster Street, was tucked  deep in a nasty part of town....I was sure that anyone still doing any murdering probably lived right around there. (Pg. 75)"  However, Ron's wife, Deborah, persuaded him to volunteer with her at the Mission, where Deborah believed God was calling her to serve the homeless.

   God works in mysterious ways.  He ordains for the journey of each person to intersect with those around them.  A dream directed Deborah to befriend Denver, a lonely man who walled off his heart after years of suffering at the hands of others.  Through her friendship with Denver, God, in turn, blessed Deborah during her time of need.  In the same way, each individual we encounter could possibly be another Denver or Deborah.  Even if we are skeptical or prejudice of others like Ron, God can still work on our hearts through the loved ones surrounding us.  No matter which of the three we are most like, God has appointed specific individuals to immensely impact our lives.  In accordance, we must show Christ's love to everyone we meet, because we never know who God will use in our lives.

   God brought Denver and the Halls together through Union Gospel Mission.  Union Gospel Mission has also served thousands of the other homeless populace in Fort Worth, Texas.  The mission follows this main foundation, "A local united Christian organization and ministry dedicated to providing love, hope, respect, and a new beginning to the homeless."

Some quick facts on UGM:
Every day, 570 to 675 people come to the Mission in need of food, shelter, and new beginnings…
In 2010 UGM-TC, through the financial support of caring friends, provided:

• 203,470 hot meals for men, women, and children who might otherwise have gone hungry.
• 25,200 sack lunches for those going to work or life-changing classes.
• 43,608 nights of shelter for women and children, keeping them safe from the dangerous streets.
• 62,890 nights of shelter for men battling addiction, poverty, and other life crises.
• 140,239 total chapel services attended by 3,571 individuals!

Source:
http://www.ugm-tc.org/about/facts 

Other parts of UGM's history:
http://www.ugm-tc.org/about/history

Sharecropping

Denver Moore in the Cotton Fields

    In the book, Denver Moore is called a modern-day slave.  One reason why Denver claims to be a modern-day slave is due to his life as a sharecropper for nearly thirty years.  In one description of his earlier life, he said, "I didn't even know  what a paycheck was (Pg 64)." In the beginning of the book, Denver shares his experiences growing up with his various relatives that were all sharecroppers.  "The Man" operated the plantations, at which his relatives sharecropped.  Denver describes him like this, "The Man  wound up bein your massa 'cause seemed like no matter how many bales a' cotton you turn, you always end up in the hole...didn't get no money, didn't get nothing but the privilege of stayin on for the next season to pay off what we owed.  I was just a little fella, but I still couldn't understand how we could work so hard ever year, and ever year end up in the hole. (Pg. 29)" For many people in Louisiana, sharecropping was the only occupation available in order to survive.  Most of the individuals profiting from sharecroppers had inherited the land from previous plantation owners.  Both black and white people attempted to sharecrop, but neither ever made much profit.  I found a website that explains how sharecropping evolved as well as the hardships faced every year by these farmers.  

Sharecropping website:

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/brown/sharecropping.htm

Here is a short documentary by Jonathon Shepherd focusing on the struggles of sharecropping:

  Source:

http://thesharecroppers.blogspot.com/

Rags to Riches

Ron Hall

   Although Ron grew up in the lower class of society, he soon rose to prominence through dealing art.  Ron said, "As I mentioned, I did not start out rich.  I was raised in a lower-middle class section of Fort Worth called Haltom City. (Pg. 18)"  At first, Ron was just your average citizen working hard for even meager wages, earning $450 a month by selling Campbell's soup.  However after Ron discovered his artistic eye and bargaining skills, his life as an art dealer flourished.   He said, "It didn't take long for the zeros to begin piling up in the bank accounts of Ron and Debbie Hall. (Pg. 8)"  Elite clientele invited the Halls to travel to their prime vacation spots.  At first, Ron's life ambition was art dealing and making money.  After researching the job of an art dealer, I discovered that for the most part it is not a glorious job.  I believe, though,  that God blessed Ron's job and allowed him to succeed.  Without God's hand working throughout Ron's life as an art dealer, Ron would have been double-crossed by Barney Goldberg at the beginning of his art career.  In God's sovereignty, he fashioned the "rags to riches" tale into Ron Hall's life.
Art Dealing:
http://www.vault.com/wps/portal/usa/professions/profile/Art-Dealer?search_result_id=678&PROFESSION_NAME=Art-Dealer&POPULAR_TRACKING=true&assignid=678&page_type=professions&rankingId1=678

A couple works of art dealt:

The Signal by Charles Russell
 Ron: "At first, I dabbled in art sales while keeping my investment-banking day job.  But in 1975, when I cleared $10,000 on a Charles Russell painting I sold to a man in Beverly Hills who wore gold-tipped white-python cowboy boots and a diamond-studded belt buckle size of a dinner plate.  After that, I quit banking and ventured out to walk the art-world tightwire without a net. (Pg. 8)

The Eagle by Alexander Calder
Ron: "Even so, in the fall of 1998, I received the kind of call of which art dealers' fantasies are made...the deal included "Eagle," a forty-foot sculpture by the twentieth-century master Alexander Calder, one of only sixteen monumental stabile sculptures the artist executed in his lifetime. (Pg. 123)"

Summary of the book....

  A Same Kind of Different as Me is a true story written by Ron Hall & Denver Moore with Lynn Vincent, which became one of New York Times Bestsellers in 2009.  The story tells of a modern-day slave, an international art dealer, and the unlikely woman who bound them together.
   We study history in order to learn about past mistakes or successful decisions, to prevent the same failures from reoccurring, and to make decisions proven to lead down a successful path.  Through critically reading Same Kind of Different As Me, I believe several important and applicable lessons are  presented.  In addition, the synopsis has hooked my attention, and I am genuinely eager to begin reading such an inspiring book. 

A brief synopsis by Squidoo:

Same Kind of Different As Me is about two men -- Ron and Denver -- and their friendship that teaches them both more than they would have ever expected or bargained for.

A poor, black man who is bitter and penniless ends up graciously loving those who hate him and closing a few high-level art deals, while a self-absorbed aristocrat ends up serving at a local homeless shelter and inviting the poor into his home.

This simple story of friendship calls you to evaluate your life in light of the greatest love and compassion.

Source:
http://www.squidoo.com/samekindofdifferentasme

A book trailer:
http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=K7DW7NNX