Friday, December 20, 2019

The Street Pantry



The Street Pantry...



Life offers up many lessons. Most of which are not
ones we would choose to learn, if given the choice.
Life throws many cruel bends along with some
uplifiting moments, though, the former has
predominated my entire life.

Being forced to live the greater portion of
my life on the streets has not
only offered up too many lessons to count,
these lessons have been shoved hard down
my throat for 2 decades.

But street life has taught me how to
improvise and improve, re-using and re-cycling
my way through life every moment of the day.

Some of the lessons learned were the results of
just doing.... like teaching myself how to cook
without a kitchen, how to make great coffee without a
coffee maker or pot. How to sleep or rest, lightly,
no matter where I am. I have learned how to stay warm on
the coldest nights. I have learned there is free phone service
that allows you to talk, text and receive voice mails by using wi-fi.
I have learned to find pockets, nooks and crannies
of Nature that are the best spots for quiet, solitude
and for just BEING.

I have learned the fine art of disappearing in plain sight and
becoming part of the landscape itself.

I have learned that people only value those who have homes,
while discarding those of us without one, regardless
of the reasons.

I have learned to stop reaching out to connect with others.
I have learned people show their true colors to those
without the luxury of a home, colors that I wish I never saw
or had to expereince. I have learned that friendship that had
been present before you were on the streets are no longer there
once you are, they tell you they want nothing to do with you.
Yeah, that is really a true friend, there!!

I have learned that people will and do make immediate snap
judgements about another person's circumstance based
solely on their opinion, not on fact. Making
erroneous assumptions of your habits, of who you are
as a person, how you came to be where you are, and so forth
just because you do not have that luxury of a safe, solid
roof over your head come nightfall.

I have learned a million things and more living on
the streets. Things that can never and will never be
taught in schools. I have never really“learned” anything
in school, other than going to class after class that served
absolutely no purpose in the reality of LIFE.
And nothing prepares you for life on the streets.
Even living on the streets itself...and being fully immersed in it.
School never taught LIFE Skills.
No skills that actually
MATTER.
And nothing useful, just damaging labels for not conforming
to their way, to their thinking and Really nothing
learned in school can be applied to real life, in any regard.
School was just a jail sentence that all
kids were forced to endure for at least a dozen
years. Imprisioned for no other reason than
the age we were.

But the Life SKILLS that street life teaches you are not
ones you can list on a resume, though immeasurable, because
all employers want to see are what you did in School and
what GRADES you received.
But they do not want to know anything else.
School and grades tell abosutely NOTHING about the person,
what their skills are or what they can contribute.
But still, kids are forced to go to school.

What is the point in school, when it serves no useful purpose?
Just required to serve your sentence. School does
nothing to prepare you for Life, in any regard. And they
teach more about Flowers and Trees, than they do
about personal biology.

Getting sucked into the Vortex of Street life...
(becomes) a No man's land while becoming
every man's and woman's Domain. Reaching the
Dead End of Life and the Black Hole of Society...
Social Interaction, (Living) a life of meaning and
purpose all but obliterated.

Learing to Re-Use and Re-Purpose your life everyday,
every moment. Remembering to B R E A T H E and
keep moving forward or life ceases to be.



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