Mar 6 2006 6:45AM
Encouraging and important!
Under the Overpass is the product of what happens when two college students put their lives on hold, leaving behind the world as they know it—leaving the comforts of home, the accessibility of food, clothing, shelter, family, and safety—in order to live life as homeless men for five months in a five different U.S. cities.
Mike Yankoski, the author, was sitting in church one day when he realized he was not the Christian he wanted to be. He drove through town, past homeless people, and people in need in order to get to church, without giving his surrounds as much as a second thought. That was when the idea hit him. He wanted to live life as a homeless person.
Though not everyone understood exactly what he hoped to prove, no one thought his idea was crazy. Through helpful counsel from family, friends, and school, Mike agreed that going it alone would, in fact be crazy. Even Jesus sent the disciples out to minister in twos. Enter Sam Purvis. Sam and Mike forsake all that they had for a backpack of essential belongings and their guitars.
Over the next five months, the two spent a month living in a mission home for recovering, homeless addicts, and on the streets of Denver, Washington DC, Portland, San Francisco, Phoenix and San Diego. Each new city they traveled to brought increasingly new challenges and living conditions that required a needed ability to adapt. And, each new city also left them feeling a bit more discouraged.
Learning to interact with the homeless seemed simple. The homeless enjoy friendship and interaction as much as the non-homeless. Mike and Sam encounter, and recall for us some of the new friendships established. And though the elements of living outdoors seem like the most likely enemy in the narration, man v. nature and all of that, it is clear to me that the antagonist is actually the church. Surprisingly, churches where Mike and Sam hoped, and expected to receive unconditional love, or love, or even some warmth, left them feeling colder than a rainy night, windy night in Portland. Love from strangers was apparent. People did give, and people did care. People helped the homeless, and more excitedly, the homeless helped the homeless.
Under the Overpass forces a reader, believer or not, to take a sobering look at their own reality. How much have we been blessed with, but don’t appreciate? How often do we complain about what we don’t have, and want, but don’t really need? I’m guilty, maybe more than most. This book was a wake-up call. It changed me. I think it is an impossible book to read without undergoing some kind of personal change, or desire for spiritual growth. Impossible. Yankoski knows how to write, keeping his story telling tight and compelling. I pray there is a follow up to this book, with more in-depth description of the days and nights in each city, and with even more renditions based on the people they encountered. Under the Overpass has left me hungry for more.
© 2006 Phillip Tomasso III, In The Library Review
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