*The Spiritual Road Trip* EXCERPT: When I arrived in Utah, I was surprised at how many people were milling about the public park who seemed, by their appearances, to not have reliable shelter. It’s hard for me to call people homeless, because then it becomes their identity, their title, their permanent truth; this same inescapable labeling tends to happen with anyone who has worked as a professional dancer at a gentlemen’s club, which is why all the women I know who have been employed as strippers are exceptionally private about sharing that information. AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON THE PERMANENT IDENTITY WE ASSIGN TO ANYONE WE'VE CATEGORIZED AS A CRIMINAL! But yes, what I’m trying to say is that these folks in Salt Lake City would probably identify as homeless. I thought the Mormons took care of each other and that a fundamental tenant of their belief system was service? How was it that so many of God’s children, right there in that religious capital, seemed to be without a roof? I knew it wasn’t just a Utah problem, of course. So why were we as humans failing so terribly at ensuring the basic needs of our species get met? Why did we drive past heaps of human people under tarps and tents and think “not my problem,” while simultaneously bemoaning the “homeless problem”? *****