As we stood in a circle at Building Changes' staff retreat, reading aloud each other's responses to the prompt of "Why our work matters," I couldn't help but marvel both the hopeful tone that unified them all and the idiosyncratic styles that set them apart. Some statements were lyrical in their simplicity, but once allowed to simmer in the subsequent silence, had an effect more complex. Others leaned toward the ornate, recounting stories or laying out logic that landed last-second wallops of emotion. No matter which way it was said, the verdict was clear: our work to end homelessness in Washington State mattered, and we knew why.
But the truth was, I had long struggled with the "our" part of that sentiment. As a recent graduate when I first started at Building Changes, my freshman
By the time
Inglourious Basterds and
Harry Potter had slipped into our discussion, the One Night Count felt more like a fraternizing affair than a civic one. So far, our flashlit trek through Woodland Park had shed more light on the film tastes of my fellow employees than on any hidden homeless population in the woods-and although I was happy to gab Golden Globes, the topic of conversation was clear evidence that we could afford to be distracted. If the homeless were out, they didn't seem very about. And because of it, our search had adopted an air of hollow formality, despite my previous hopes to make this one night count for something.
The search was racking up a number of other forfeited illusions, too, although one or two of them were admittedly pretty silly to begin with:
You mean we
