Campout
Posted on October 23, 2006
Filed Under Uncategorized |
It’s not a Boy Scout hot dogs and cocoa cookout location, this campsite. It’s the blue tarp and shopping cart kind of camp. A group of homeless—four of them, I think—campout less than a block from my building. Hidden, just around the corner, I can almost see them from my window. A curve ball from my balcony could probably hit the side of the tent, if the trees didn’t block it’s path.
I drive past them, every day, taking the shortcut through the old church lot to avoid the lights at the corner. I started taking this path because it was a shortcut. It cut a couple seconds off of my afternoon commute. It got me in the door a second sooner, my lips to my girlfriend’s lips a moment earlier. Now, I take it because it reminds me of everything I have. Because it reminds me not to take for granted the cupboards full of food. Because I can’t pretend that it isn’t there.
It reminds me that it might be a degree or two too hot inside the building, but at least it’s not five or ten too cold. It reminds me of the shadow-people who suffer in the backalleys and river valley hideouts.
They may be drunks, or drug addicts. Maybe they’re simply unwilling to work. Regardless of their stories, it strikes me as alternately tragic and pathetic that people should live this way…in this country…in this province. But, prosperity tends to breed poverty. The richer the rich get, the poorer the poor get. The more the Oil Men make, the more visible, and more plentiful, the shadow-people become.
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Well written Adam. Personally, I believe in equal opportunity. What we choose to do with that opportunity is of course, our choice. It’s the responsibility of the well-off to ensure that the not-so-well-off can have the opportunity to get what they want. That doesn’t mean the rich should give everyone a free ride or anything like that. What takes hard work, takes hard work. But if you’re stuck in the dumps and want to get out, absolutely our society should provide you with a path.
You’ve got some great word usage in this entry. You could write a wonderful poem out of it. Just a thought.
“It got me in the door a second sooner, my lips to my girlfriend’s lips a moment earlier.”
Nice. Very nice.