Day 721 is alternately titled, "WWRJD?" (What Would Rick James Do?) lol I wanted an excuse to type that out, myself - so I just did!
There are some interesting tidbits that Blake has posted on Day 721 of his THE 800 DAYS blog. These are details about Google and IBM... thinkin' we should all keep an eye out for what is happening between those two computer industry GIANTS...
(Remember, I already said I'm going to switch to LINUX in 2011? Maybe what Google and IBM - and Apple and HP and Microsoft and a bunch of other GIANTS do won't be much of an issue for me)
Go-go-gadget-Linux!
Anyway - there are two very neat-o vids on the Day 721 post. The shows the BEST images of wolves and a tune I don't know the name to - but I'll get the vid transfered onto the Vid/Audio tab and double check the artist name and other details. I've hit "play" a couple of times already...
Some statements in the song with the vid of wolves are things I can identify with, like:
"I like to make myself believe
That planet earth turns slow-ly"
It's hard to say that I'd rather
Stay awake when I'm asleep
'cos everything is never as it seems [...]"
Hey - the lyrics are shown in the vid, btw... Nice.
The second video, I think it amazing in a way because it shows homeless people as real human beings. It's not a collection of clips of brown-bag-booze-bums and shyt like so many homelessness awareness commercials show. Of course, the vid is scripted to a certain extent but I love that the first images are of children with signs saying things like, "I am family" and "I am your son." I like that the children are featured later in the vid with signs like "I am thirsty/hungry," too.
Now don't take this the wrong way - but the image of children associated with homeless people is VERY APT, in my experience. In the same way that children require more capable people to care for them, so do homeless people require care and consideration. They have become homeless for a number of reasons - all of them - not just for a sole reason or from one or two factors in their lives getting out of control.
HOMELESSNESS IS A TRAUMA!
If the average person were forced to just become homeless for JUST ONE DAY as a test of some sort, the average person would have at least a minimally traumatizing experience (I do foot tours and take people around my city to role-play homelessness so they know how it feels. Most of my clients require a lot of stops, breaks and ask a lot of questions - they cry, feel guilty, feel oppressed, suffer identity glitches - even if my foot tour lasts only 1-2 hours)...
TRAUMATIZED PEOPLE REQUIRE UNCONDITIONAL RESOURCES AND SUPPORT
- not prejudice thrown at them and not suggestions about what faults they have that got them into homelessness. Also, throwing a traumatized person into jobs, housing, etc. too quickly or without the right supports means setting them up for pressure and failure. Being placed into a house (without the right supports) doesn't take care of the issue of trauma and the need for healing that happens if a person is homeless for more than TWO WEEKS!
It is even mortifying for some/most people to avoid homelessness by staying on a friends' couch for even as short a time as ONE WEEK... and if you've ever even stayed with relatives for a vacaion period in a home not your own, you've likely experiences some discomforts and disorientation doing something famaily oriented - so just keep stuff like this in mind, if you can, throughout 2011. As Blake mentions in his post, "Home is not something to be taken for granted...even if you have one."
If you're currently housed, I sure hope you can stay that way throughout the entirety of this New Year 2011. If you're currently housed and have extra things of any kind - even it its just extra time to go hug someone less fortunate than yourself - please share what you have that you don't need and refrain from hoarding resources of any kind... A smile is an awesome resources that everyone can give away for FREE.
The 800 Days blog also has a backtrack meant for a few days ago about Kwanzaa Traditions, which are Pagan celebrations related to the abundance of the last seasons' crops. I think this article is really a good end to a post with homelessness content on it because it's about celebrating over and sharing what you've got currently in your possession...and in Kwanzaa traditions, no discriminations are present over one person having a little less of a crop than another.
The Day 721 entry on THE 800 DAYS blog is associated with Thursday December 30 2010.
IAOTIO
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