The Harry Tompson Center is committed to providing a calm and caring environment in which to serve the needs of the poor and homeless in the downtown New Orleans area. The Center is dedicated to improving the quality of life for all those who come to us in need, not merely by responding to physical needs, but also by attending to the whole person with respect and compassion, after the example of Jesus.

A Different Kind of Valentine

This is certainly the most unique job I’ve ever had.  There’s no money incentive.  No one is trying to boost our sales of showers and laundry, since everything here of course is absolutely free.  Competition to get ahead is replaced by cooperation to work together and help those most vulnerable among us.  There is no product that I’m seeking to push and really very little that I can give greater than the little flame of love that I hold in my heart.

However, like any good company, there are in fact a few goals that we’d love to achieve.  Namely, that every person is insured the basic rights of life like food, shelter, medical care, love and affection and acceptance in society.  The whole community suffers when its members are denied any of these essential human needs.  The profit or our “business” is not more and more money (though we need that too!) but rather more and more love transforming peoples’ lives.     

This, then, leads me to reflect on how I saw love so richly expressed this past Valentine’s Day.  Like the cheesy movie “Love Actually” says: Love is all around us.  I wasn’t sure how our guests would feel about Valentine’s Day.  Would our guests tend to see it as superficial, hypocritical, hokey, commercialist?  If anyone did, they didn’t show it.  I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted over and over by a warm hug or handshake and a genuine, enthusiastic “Happy Valentine’s Day, friend!”  It was a much needed reminder that love is not limited to romantic relationships or close friends and family.  Here at the center, I see love celebrated every day in the form of a community coming together across racial and socio-economic barriers to join hands in mutual service to one another and friendship.  My sweetheart may have been hundreds of miles away from me on Valentines Day, but I felt a very special Valentines love expressed through the precious friendships that I have made here that in many ways have made life just a little bit sweeter.    


Dan Thelen 2008-02-29

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