Journeying Together

Published in the Catalyst, Vol. 32, No. 2 - Spring 2009

The Twenty-Piece Shuffle: Why the Poor and the Rich Need Each Other
By Greg Paul
Paris, ON: David C. Cook, 2008

Reviewed by Emily Hutten

“For the prophets of the parks, streets, alleys, and stairwells,” reads the dedication for Greg Paul’s second book, The Twenty-Piece Shuffle.

Living in any Canadian city one encounters their doorway bedrooms and sidewalk petitions. Prophets: the homeless thousands living with “no fixed address” as they carry all they own on their backs along with burdens of injury and illness, judgment and neglect. We can picture their faces, may know a few names and stories. Their presence stirs our stomachs with discomfort as we join the morning passersby.

We know deep in our beings that something is wrong with this reality, and yet bridging the felt distance between those living in poverty and our lives lived with material ease is challenging, burdening—hard.

“Although…I may convince myself otherwise, I do not journey alone,” writes Greg Paul, founding director of the sacred community that is Sanctuary, “There are companions on the road, and Christ himself will show up to guide me, though I may not recognize him at first…”

Paul and the members of Sanctuary in Toronto prove to be open, welcoming companions for those who receive the story and frank reflection found in The Twenty-Piece Shuffle. Each story is shared tenderly, sensitive to the fragility and raw reality offered as a gift to the reader. For as these intimacies are told, including confessions of burden, anger and fear from Paul himself, the reader is given permission to reveal their own hunger to be known and loved. A revelation that begins to walk the distance felt between the rich and poor.

As Paul illustrates throughout the book, “The reality…is that the rich are usually, because of their riches, barely conscious of their deep poverty and consequent invitation to embrace their true identity in relationship with their Maker that can be found only in those depths. And the poor…generally have little sense of their blessedness, the amazing gifts they have to share with people who appear to them to already have it all.”

The concluding chapter, aptly titled “Arrival,” leaves the reader unclear as to where the lines of definition between rich and poor can even be drawn and certain that they have journeyed into safe, though fragile, communion. Greg Paul’s simple conclusion resonates deeply—we need each other. We are guiding each other home.

CPJ board member Emily Hutten spends her days at ARK, a street-level organization that seeks to build community with youth who are homeless or street-involved in Halifax.