It finally happened. My car’s starter broke. I think it’s the starter anyway. So, here I sit at a gas station waiting for help. It’s really fun watching the working cars pull up, shut off, their owners walk in, walk out, cars start, and drive away. I had to leave my car in the parking lot which threatens to tow anyone who is parked more than 15 minutes and walk four blocks for an interview with a reporter from the school newspaper, “The Reporter”, at Minnesota State University – Mankato. Lucky for me, this particular “Kwik Trip” is not very strict on their parking rule. I’ve been parked here for about an hour and a half. At any rate, I guess this is an excellent chance for me to sit and watch the wondrous variety of people in the world. Muscle head college boys, wangsters and wiggers, people complaining about phone calls from friends and the “retarded rules” that the college has, someone literally just threw a pack of cigarettes to his friend and they hit my car, insult to injury I guess.
Oh there’s my help!
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (X’s are there to show passing time) XX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
As it turns out nothing was quite as broken as I thought, just loose, or stuck, or something. So the car is back up and running and we’re both loving life.
What you don’t know about the X’s is that they represent more than 24 hours. So it’s a day later and I’ve had a whole other set of thoughts going through my mind now that I’m not worrying about my car. It’s been bothering me that some people are having such a hard time with the fact that I’m doing this homeless living adventure with a car and a computer.
First of all, the amount of homeless people with a car is astronomical. No, not all of them do, and no, not the majority of the homeless do, but there are quite a few that do and I am one of them.
Secondly, my whole point of this adventure is to be able to tell people just what it’s like to be homeless, and I can’t do that without a computer.
Thirdly, the reason I want to show as many people as I can what homelessness is about, is because in the ever worsening state of our country, more and more people are loosing there homes and we never see where they end up. It’s seems like our society does it’s best to ignore them. So the new “breed” of homeless people are sitting at stores and restaurants with there computers, searching for jobs and updating facebook accounts.
This is 2010! We’re homeless. We have gadgets. Get over it!
Oh and tell your friends!
Hey Sean. You don't know me but I think what you are doing is admirable. Listen to your inner voice and follow your heart. If you need a place to hang out on the road you can head over to any public library. Libraries offer a quiet place to sit, hop on a computer, learn something new, talk to people, and freshen up. And the great thing about them is they are free and open to everyone. In fact they are one of a few places that welcome the homeless. Blessings to you on your journey. Come back and share what you learned. Monika
ReplyDeleteSean,
ReplyDeleteI'm way behind and just catching up now--so will be reading for the next hour or so,lol--so hope your doing well.
a couple things.
please don't use the words 'wigger' or 'wangster'---they're still racist. just saying.
second, I think you're doing a good thing--I hope you learn a lot and teach a lot via your blog. As a photographer, I've taken in apon myself on several occasions to sit and talk to a homeless person, rather than just photograph them--wanting to know who they are and how they found themselves in this situation. There's so many stories out there, and unfortunately there's a lot of stereotypes and bs out there.
best of luck!