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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