Thanks for sharing. I didn't have nearly as dramatic an experience, but I also went through a food line in Detroit not too long ago on a street retreat led by Alex from Faithful Fools (also from the Tenderloin.) I remember giving my sacked lunch to someone at a bus shelter who was giving me a sob story. When he looked into the bag and I explained where I got it his attitude brightened a bit and he thanked me, holding out his fist for me to bump with my own. It was touching in a transformative sort of way. I also noticed how the streets led into the neighborhood but not out and how the advertisements were for products so far out of reach of the residents, stuff like AIDS medication. It helps to grow compassion within us like the Grinch's expanding heart. But a heart hurts in breaking by expanding as it does breaking by being crushed.