My latest read, The Mole People, by Jennifer Toth, tells the story of the underground tunnels of NYC and the people who live there. What a fascinating journey into a culture unlike any other, but no doubt replicated around the world in the tunnels under other mega-cities. These tunnels go down seven or more stories underground with old closed off waiting rooms and other abandoned places still inhabited by the unmentionables of society. She calls them mole people because that is how they are referred to by the “higher-class” above-ground homeless. Not quite human, they are deemed.

What a great reminder as we live in the midst of an immensely suffering people group, that there are those who suffer more or who suffer just as much, only differently. It’s so easy to get lost in our narrow perspectives of the worlds we inhabit, yet around the world and even in our own developed country, there are equally demanding fields of work, equally demanding needs. The problems of homeless people in big cities is perhaps far more challenging than what we face here on a daily basis. And I continue to be convicted and amazed at the similarities between sub-saharan Africa and modern day America. Poverty and great wealth side by side. Deep suffering prevalent and abundant but highly ignored in the search for pleasure.