i continue to find it interesting how friends of mine react when they learn i am going to be homeless. while several of them have lent me a hand in numerous ways. a decidedly large majority seem to ignore/ avoid my situation as if it may infect them with some horrible affliction.
i’m not sure why. is it simply because they find the situation so awkward and uncomfortable that it’s simply easier for them to deal with it by not dealing with it? or could it be that they are afraid i will ask them to put me up and they figure if they don’t comment on it/ end contact with me they won’t have to face such a possibility? not that i have/would ask anyone to take me in.
i have commented on this before in a previous post . but a recent interaction with another person i know has caused me to think upon this further.
i need to have some cash on hand for buying items that my food stamps don’t cover such as soap, toothpaste and other non-food items which are not allowed under the “snap” program. i find it interesting that people when talking about the homeless usually will make reference to them being “dirty”, “smelly” and “unkempt” etc. but how, i ask, are homeless people supposed to bathe, shave and wash their clothes without money to do so? and in the case of bathing, a place to do so? why is not a small portion of food stamp money allowed to be spent on personal care items? i realize that there are a percentage of people who might use such non-food money on items such as liquor, cigarettes and other non essential items. but the vast majority i say, would spend the money on useful personal care items. and with modern computerized technology, it would be very easy to to allow certain taxable items to be purchased, while refusing others.
allowing the homeless to purchase these items would not only remove the veneer of uncleanliness, from the homeless. but would also go a great way in lifting up their emotional/psychic well being. after all how good can one feel about themselves and how can they have any hope about improving their situation, if they have been wearing the same unwashed clothes for weeks at a time, or haven’t been able to shower or shave in months?
but i digress… so i need to have cash on hand, as i have said. i have a few personal items which i am attempting to sell, one of which is a yamaha 6-string guitar. i have a musician friend, brian s. who is very keen on guitars and has a small collection of them. so i sent him an email asking if he would like to purchase my guitar before i put it on craigslist for sale.
his response was “definitely! i get paid this thursday. what kind if guitar is it? why are u selling it? ill definitely buy it”.
my reply was “it’s a yamaha 6 string acoustic…you were with me when i bought it all those many years ago… i’m selling it because due to all my hospital/prescription bills, and not being able to find work, i am out of cash and desperate for money… so out of money that i am actually going to be on the streets as of june 1…or thereabouts….so the 75$ will certainly come on handy… i have started a blog about my situation which you can read here:
https://ironwrackdream.wordpress.com/”
after sending him that message i heard nothing from him for 3 days. not a word about the guitar, not even a “sorry to hear about what’s going on”. nothing. so after 3 days of no reply i sent him a message asking if he was going to come by the next day to get the guitar and his response was ” i’ll see what everything is like after i pay all the bills i have”.
now i understand that everyone has bills and that yes he might not have the cash to purchase it from me. but the general tone of his responses after learning of my situation was quite different than before he knew.
this is the way most of the people i know, have responded. once i am out on the streets and begin to make friends amongst the other homeless people, it will be interesting to see if this type of response is fairly typical, or if it simply is that most of the people i have counted amongst my friends have always been merely assholes in disguise.
addendum: open mouth and insert foot…i wrote to brian s. about the situation with the guitar a few hours after my original post of this blog post, and he told me he didn’t have the money. of course he was still a bit….ummm impolite for not letting me know. and i certainly jumped to a bit of a conclusion upon not hearing from him, for which i apologize, should he ever read this. so i do not include him among the asshole contingent of people i know. maybe i am becoming jaded by the attitudes of some and apply them to everyone else. i shall have to guard against this in the future.
i have created a wish list at amazon.com for certain things that will be very helpful for me to have while i am homeless, but which i can not in anyway afford. you can simply select the item that you wish to donate, and it will be sent to me.
by clicking the “wishlist” tab at the top of the blog you will see explanations of why i have placed these items on my wishlist.
my wishlist can be found at the following link: wishlist
thank you
ironwrackdream 