Synopsis
This fictional account is part of a struggle that goes on throughout the major cities of our country. Those who do not make it by society’s standards, those unable to meet basic safe living requirements, number somewhere near a million of our fellow Americans. We use the standard of homelessness, but the statistics on hunger in America reflect the same dire situation for those who fall beneath the safety net every day. Their situation is complex to say the least. Men, women and children fall through the measures meant to be their security from such difficult and dangerous experiences. Food pantries and soup kitchens and homeless shelters have tried to form a network that responds to the desperation of the people suffering from dire poverty in America. Charitable organizations, religions, and government agencies are all reaching out to this large and unmanageable population of street people. So far, we do not have a magic solution that combines respect and self-dignity with support and basic human sustenance. The tragic story of Jacob Olmsted may serve to put some perspective and understanding to this challenge we face.
About the Author
Robert M. Johnson, PhD, has spent long hours as a Psychotherapist serving the emotional needs of those whose life slipped off the edge of social acceptance. The ravages of trauma, loss, the impossible stressors that turn an average person into society’s derelict, all these factors are well known to those willing to listen. The damage of drug and alcohol abuse compound the suffering of these lives lost to the structure and comforts of “normal” living. Telling this story which he has heard hundreds of times, helps Dr. Johnson bring the needs and concerns of this voiceless population to the attention of all. Jacob Olmsted lived the best life he could, but like many of his contemporaries it was never enough. It is one of the profound contradictions of our human intelligence that we see ourselves through shaded glass, and that only dimly. Our personal identity, our meaning and our sense of freedom is always our own, just the one we hold onto so desperately right now. The story of homeless Jake gives the reader a vantage point, a chance to look at their own life with new eyes. It is the gift of Jacob Olmsted to all.
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