By Sam Resnick
Think about your favorite blanket. Maybe it’s the one on your bed right now. Maybe it’s the one you were inseparable from as a child. Or maybe it’s the one a kind soul gave you yesterday, the one that kept you alive last night.
Sam Resnick holds a donated blanket in Blanchet House’s clothing closet.
Every time I volunteer in Blanchet House’s clothing closet, I see how much a simple blanket can change someone’s life when they have nothing. Having the chance to give back and serve has really helped me feel how important blankets have been to me throughout my life.
I can’t remember what my first blanket looked like, but I can remember how it felt when I suddenly didn’t have it. I was two years old, and like most days, I took my favorite blanket to preschool. But that day was different. That day, I left my blanket too close to the cage of the class rats. Anyone who’s ever been homeless can probably tell you what happened next.
One thing you learn very quickly when living on the street is that rats love to chew on everything. I didn’t just lose my blanket that day, I lost everything, I lost my sense of security, my sense of comfort, suddenly the world wasn’t the safe, welcoming place I thought it was.
Most of us grow out of our favorite blankies. We find other ways to cope with the scary things in the world. But what happens when our sense of security is ripped away from us as adults?
“We readily feel for a suffering child, but cannot see the child in the adult who, his soul fragmented and isolated, hustles for survival a few blocks away from where we shop or work,” wrote Gabor Maté, a physician and author who writes about trauma and addiction in his groundbreaking book, In the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts.
We’ve all seen someone like this. Maybe we never see their face, but we’ve seen their blanket. We’ve seen them hunched over, attempting to put one heavy foot in front of the other. Maybe they’re traveling to Blanchet House for a meal. Maybe they’re a student on their way to school, just like you.
But do you see their blanket the way they do? Do you see that someone who loved them, without even learning their name, gave them that blanket without a second thought? Do you know that blanket might have been the only thing that kept them alive last night?
Let me tell you about my other favorite blanket. I’ve also had this blanket for a long time, since my friend Brandon left it in our tent. I didn’t realize that it would save my life the next time I found myself living in a tent.
The winter of 2019-20 was pretty mild by recent Portland standards; it only got down to 20° at night once, and the sidewalks didn’t turn into ice rinks. Unfortunately, I wasn’t living in a house that winter, but I thought I’d be fine. My friend Dean gave me a sleeping bag that was rated to 30°, and I had a tent set up in a decent spot. For someone homeless in Portland in winter, I was in the top 1%.
But you don’t realize how cold 20° is until the walls you have to protect you are made of cloth. Sure, I could have gone to a warming shelter. I could have traded the security of my tent for the warmth of a temporary city shelter. But why would I? I’d heard horror stories about shelters. About people getting everything they own stolen, of people getting bedbugs. Did I want to abandon my tent and roll the dice? Luckily, I didn’t have to. I bundled up in my sleeping bag in my long johns and thick socks with my blanket, and I was comfortable, I was ok because I had my favorite blanket.
Sam Resnick is a frequent volunteer at Blanchet House, where he sorts donated clothing and distributes items to people visiting the clothing closet. You can sign up to volunteer here. Blankets and other needed items can be donated to Blanchet House Mon-Sat, 8-10:30 a.m. or 1:30-4 p.m. at 310 NW Glisan St., Portland, OR 97207.
