are you listening?

As I peered out through the dirt- and rain-smeared windows at the tenement housing and the litter-strewn streets, I wondered to myself where the people were who cared even minimally and whether nurturing one's home was a foreign thought.

Or if they were incapable of doing anything about it, not through any fault of their own, but because someone or some system had let them down. not one soul walking on the streets for block upon block; the silence of their poverty cried out in volumes.

Bricks have fallen, shelters have tumbling overhangs and there is no sign of hope in sight. A woman who was speaking rather loudly to someone on her cell phone or blue tooth -- arguing, actually -- interrupted my thoughts.

"I am a servant of the Lord and will not be caught up in your web of lies, your little games. Freddy owes me $20,000 and I will be getting that money from him one way or another."

She spoke loudly, unconcerned that she was disturbing anyone's reading or sleeping while on this train. The riders looked around nervously at each other, uncertain if Blue Tooth Lady was capable of exacting harm or not; compassion for her plight was co-mingled with fear for the life of the person on the other end of the conversation.

"Oh, I will not be toyed with any longer!" Visions of boiling pots on top of stoves swarmed in this particular rider's head and I suddenly felt compelled to pray that Blue Tooth Lady would be exiting the train at one of the next stops.

As the towns sped by, desolate-looking and barren in these mid-winter months, one could only hope that the spring thaw would bring a return of hope and happiness, a renewed outlook and peace to the those who live in such squalor. These projects and the folks who reside therein have probably long since stopped believing that hope exists, and Blue Tooth Lady gets off at the train depot in one such town.

I wondered as she departed from the train if there is any such thing as hope in her, having now learned over the prior 15 minutes she was destitute and it was most undoubtedly Freddy's fault. I asked God to bless her in her day and before she stepped onto the platform, she turned to see if she had gathered up all of her bags.

It was then I learned that she had no phone in her possession.