I am puking sick tonight. One of those wretched headaches and poisoned-feeling sicknesses, when every thought is another worry and puking actually makes me feel better. It is my own life I am sick about, and also I am sick with concern about what is happening down south. I've been homeless before, and I was thinking "what if I was homeless right now, feeling like this?" What if I didn't have bottled water to drink to get better. What if I had no facilities, or if I was living out of my car at a rest stop or on some dark street? I might just die. I might just lie there and be sick.
I have not been watching the television. I asked a cashier tonight if she had been watching the news on New Orleans, and she told me about people dying who had crawled up into their attics to escape the rising flood and drowned. Another cashier told me about dogs on rooftops, barking for someone to rescue them, but no one can, they are turning away the animal rescue groups, I presume for logistical and safety reasons. Check out
http://http://www.noahswish.com/There are different ways to be homeless. Myself I always had a car to sleep in. It is why I now have a mini-van, and might always have a car big enough to stretch out in. I am wondering about tent camps, like old time travellers had, big canvas tents a person could really live in. That was one thing about being homeless, the whole lack of privacy and the complications of the basic details like food storage, showering, and finding facilities. Then there was the deprivation, a person can't cook, can't listen to music except at the expense of the car radio, or batteries I guess. Making a telephone call becomes an errand that can take an hour, and the telephone is vital to connecting with the resources that can get a person into housing and a job or connect with relatives and friends.
I would like to envision as little deprivation as possible. I am thinking about tent camps, and how to make them really livable and not miserable deprivation. Camping can be fun because you can read by flashlight, you can make jokes and ghost stories, there is firelight and candlelight and the sounds of locusts and crickets. Music is really important, I wish there could be musicians in the camps, that really can heal a tired spirit.
There are also ingenious things out there like composting toilets, bicycle-powered washing machines, and lest anyone forget, solar power! Check out
http://http://www.realgoods.com/. Many needs and comforts can be met.
