(no subject)
It's a shame that I'm such a good morning person, because it seems these days that the moon brings out the best of me.
John Prine has a song that asks, "Where have all the hobos gone." Sometimes I ask myself that.
And then I work a shift at the youth food shelf. And the travelers with dreadlocks and babies and skinny dogs come in and my heart breaks and I remember. Just because you can't see them, or they aren't in your face, doesn't mean that they don't exist.
I think this is the problem within the community... just the fact that so often those who don't want to see the problem truly can't see it. I mean, I've been a part of this "problem", this community of people that really need resources, or the few that choose to live like this, and even I can forget that they're out there. That we're out there. I can never quite figure out the "you's" and "we's" and "them's". I don't like to have that distinguisher. I was them, so am I a we with them? That sentence is much too confusing.
But still, the rich folks, the suburbians, the college students, if you aren't looking, sometimes the serious issues could totally go unnoticed. How is anyone supposed to know that shelters turn away thousands of people every year who need shelter on any given night? How do we know that the guy who just rode by on his bike lives on that bike, sleeps on it at night so no one steals it, and carries his life in the sack on his back? If we aren't looking, we are blind to the world.
And I'm guilty of this. Very. I do my best to ignore the news because it's too emotional to handle what's really going on in the world. Jack Johnson has a song where he asks how the newscasters can read the news without a tear in their eyes. If I watched the news, I'd cry every day.
John Prine has a song that asks, "Where have all the hobos gone." Sometimes I ask myself that.
And then I work a shift at the youth food shelf. And the travelers with dreadlocks and babies and skinny dogs come in and my heart breaks and I remember. Just because you can't see them, or they aren't in your face, doesn't mean that they don't exist.
I think this is the problem within the community... just the fact that so often those who don't want to see the problem truly can't see it. I mean, I've been a part of this "problem", this community of people that really need resources, or the few that choose to live like this, and even I can forget that they're out there. That we're out there. I can never quite figure out the "you's" and "we's" and "them's". I don't like to have that distinguisher. I was them, so am I a we with them? That sentence is much too confusing.
But still, the rich folks, the suburbians, the college students, if you aren't looking, sometimes the serious issues could totally go unnoticed. How is anyone supposed to know that shelters turn away thousands of people every year who need shelter on any given night? How do we know that the guy who just rode by on his bike lives on that bike, sleeps on it at night so no one steals it, and carries his life in the sack on his back? If we aren't looking, we are blind to the world.
And I'm guilty of this. Very. I do my best to ignore the news because it's too emotional to handle what's really going on in the world. Jack Johnson has a song where he asks how the newscasters can read the news without a tear in their eyes. If I watched the news, I'd cry every day.