Former Mustard Seed client Jake Parsons visits the shelter's popular Philosophy Cafe once a week to discuss big ideas.

Jake Parsons, a reserved 34-year-old former Mustard Seed resident who was once homeless, likes the classics: the works of Homer, Virgil and other ancient authors. “I read hard stuff for fun: philosophy, science, history,” he says and pulls a copy of Myths from Mesopotamia and a Bible from his bag.

Parsons has never taken a course on Aristotle or written a paper on Plato; he never went to university. However, he still spends his Saturday mornings discussing the ethical and metaphysical at the Mustard Seed homeless shelter on 11th Ave. S.E. in the city’s downtown. The temporary labourer lived in the Mustard Seed’s shelter facility for part of last year. It was there he discovered its Philosophy Café program. Parsons has taken the train to the Seed this morning from his new suite just outside of the downtown.

The café is one of a number of education programs, including a drama club and a movie series on social justice, offered by the Seed to its guests. The program began last June and has quickly become popular, drawing as many as 20 participants per session.

Bringing together low-income individuals with a diverse set of challenges, the program offers participants an opportunity for personal development as significant as any vocational program.

Café sessions and other programs are held in the Mustard Seed’s downtown location, where the charity has its transitional housing. Participants come from the Seed’s shelter in the Foothills Industrial Park and then return there for the night. “We get all kinds here,” says Michael, the Mustard Seed’s education manager and facilitator of the café, who didn’t want his full name used. “[Some] have no permanent roofs over their heads. We have a lot of brain injuries that have never been diagnosed, and mental health issues that have never been diagnosed. [Even] double amputees who’ve lost their limbs due to frostbite. It’s one of those neat things — to see these individuals in groups talking about what’s important to them.”

Michael sees the program as a way for guests to improve their communication skills. “I think it gives people a voice in a very comfortable environment. I want to give people the tools to advocate for themselves, so that they can articulate exactly what it is they need.”

“(Some guests) can be very opinionated,” he says. “Because of Philosophy Café, they’ve become more tolerant of others’ opinions, and in some ways, that is huge progress.”

Every other Saturday morning, sunlight streaming through the big picture windows at the charity’s downtown location, participants gather around a table for coffee, hash browns, scrambled eggs and conversation. Since it started last spring, the café has tackled such topics as creation and evolution, life and immortality, and technology. Guests take turns leading the discussion.

Every other Saturday morning, sunlight streaming through the big picture windows at the charity’s downtown location, participants gather around a table for coffee, hash browns, scrambled eggs and conversation. Since it started last spring, explains Michael, as guests trickle in and sit down, the café has tackled such topics as creation and evolution, life and immortality, and technology. Participants take turns leading the discussion. Parsons led a recent session on technology. The conversation jumped from the evolution of the computer, to robotics, to early English computer scientist Alan Turing's test of machine intelligence. “Very, very complicated stuff,” says Michael. “To see the level of discussion is amazing. Some days, it is exactly like a beginning university class in philosophy.”

Nigel Kirk, a 24-year-old former Safeway employee working on a historical play, is one of the first here this morning. Kirk lives in the Mustard Seed’s transitional housing. “One of the big stereotypes about homeless people is that they’re uneducated. A lot of people think that if you’re not an addict or mentally ill, you must be stupid.” This is not the case, according to Kirk, who first came to the Mustard Seed when he lost his sublet apartment last February. “Some of us just got really unlucky.”

Kirk is one of the Philosophy Café’s regulars. “I like coming here, because it helps me practise my public speaking skills. Any job you have, you're going to need interpersonal skills and you’re going to need public speaking skills,” he explains. “Usually, I like playing the devil’s advocate, challenging people on their opinions. It allows me to voice my opinions, but the real joy is learning from other people.”

In this, the café’s first session of the “spring semester,” guests are discussing new beginnings and second chances. The discussion brings up some knotty ethical questions. You might think you deserve a second chance, but what about the drunk driver that killed your daughter, Michael asks the group.

The topic takes a personal turn, to the fresh starts that those sitting around the table want to make. “I've been given a lot of chances, and I've screwed up a lot in my life,” says Parsons. This year, “I just want to stay out of the shelters. I kind of want to give back what’s been given to me.”