We all see them everyday, we don't always pay attention but they might be what we are missing. What we really miss is what happens when we go home for the day, we shower, clean the house take care of the kids. We finish the day many times drinking and doing a hobby or watching whatever on tv. We know out side can be hot or cold, and feel blessed not to be there. What we don't see is the the world grow dark, the city become lifeless, one person remains. He roams hungry, uncomfortable and wanting company. But day in and day out, his luck has not changed, his or her situation unchanged. A situational depression you may call it. As living beings we are social creatures, we work better with companionship, like a pair of birds, a cacti and a tree. When choices are made, priorities change, and some fall behind. When we leave are fellow man behind, we are to adapt to this change, ignoring our emotional response for the more rational choice. We slowly become divided. We no longer have a helping hand, a person there when we can use it, a younger guy to help the older folks.
It reminds me of a friend that works day labor, never enough to move ahead, like many others the bad economy effected him, financial woes started to divide the household, the kids became increasingly disruptive. Hi wife started looking elsewhere, and he went to his own devices. So know sleeping on a bus bunch, he dreams of those happier days, waking to the reality of being alone on a bus stop. We gets up to head to a job that doesn't pay him enough to afford he place with higher rent than a bus bench. He sees kids at play, reminding him of his own, now far away. He sees a couple, the loving cuddling kind, it reminds him of the love he lost. he sees friends walking and joking, something he no longer has. He notices that many don't have the same hobbies or interests. He is a blue collar family man, left behind, left to wonder the urban city desert like any nomad, struggling in the present, searching for the future, trying to rise from the heartbreaking past.
Another is more educated and hippy. left to hustle any way he can, but living alone, we is your hopeless romantic. Life to be a urban nomad himself. Located about 2 miles from the other. He enjoys the livelihood of the busy downtown area, enjoy the different venues and cafes. But when five o'clock comes , he sits alone. Pondering the wisdom he can gain from today's events, pondering why the universe place him here, and how tomorrow he can make someone else's day better. Still he sits, crowded by empty towers, lifeless shops, and a couple or family walking by.
Next time you see someone say hi, spend some time and tomorrow , maybe do it again. This is an easy life change, something we can all do, if anything we get things going its us coming together.
A life changing thing we saw running the Safe Park Protest, was that within 24 hours a new resident had their stress level went down dramatically. Part of that is people with no where to go, now have a place to return to. They had a place to keep their stuff. They had blankets given to them, and notified that a small breakfast of donuts and coffee would come at 8 am. They had other people they slept with that gave them comfort. With a great diversity of people, each moved towards others with like interests. Couple slept near couples, Girls slept near the more protective men. The nite owls with the night owls, the elderly with the elderly. As the community grew, these groups intermingled. Offering a trade or barter system. Helping each other, socializing, having a sense of community, being a part of something. No longer lonely.
Now after months of police making people file uncomfortable there, we now see many of the people who had been lifted out of this situational loneliness, brought back into this because they are alone again left to be roaming urban nomads, being removed from a happy place again, re traumatized as the courts or mental health would call it. Because they now feel that homelessness is a crime, being seen poor is a crime, and standing with a voice is a crime, they also have become domestic refugees. The change, is they still have friends, they have a community or spread apart, they learned some new skills, they found people willing to spend time, lend a hand with no strings attached.
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