I am finding it difficult to catch my breath in the light of the ever changing news flashes.
Nevertheless, I will try to write about things I wanted to write about anyway, and either ignore the ever unfolding headlines, or just glance at them.
A few weeks ago I went to my yoga class. I usually park on Kains Avenue, just before Solano Avenue. It happened to be a very cold, but not a rainy day. I parked the car and opened the boot to get my yoga mat and socks. As I closed it I saw something on the pavement on the right side of the car. I looked over and there was an inert body lying face up on the pavement, next to the recycling and garbage cans. The face was covered with a blanket which reached down to his lower trunk. From the bottom edge of the blanket emerged a pair of white legs. They were wearing dirty ragged socks. The body was totally still.
So, my dilemma started.
"I am just in time for yoga. Should I go, or should I call the police. If I do call the police, what will they do. Should I call the non urgent police number? There were other people in the street and no-one was paying any attention. In the end I didn't do anything, and carried on to my yoga class. Needless to say, it was not a particularly relaxing session. I kept berating myself - 'what have I descended to? shouldn't I have done something? Am I completely immune to what is going on around me? By the end of class I had resolved that if the body was still there I would call the police.
I walked back to the car and saw a man sitting on the pavement right next to my car looking through a garbage can. When I reached the car I looked at him and said "I am very pleased to see you are alive."
He was a tall, bearded, definitely scruffy white man. He responded by saying, 'this is not what it seems like. I do have a home, but you know what it is like when you have problems with a landlord or a roommate, so sometimes I come here. But this place is so busy today - there seems to be an event at the cinema. (I was parked right next to the lot behind the Cinema.) People are walking up and down. "
I pointed out that it is a place where people walk on the pavement, and yes, there are quite a few people going about their business, and yes, people are going to see the films.
"Yes," he said, "I suppose you are right. By the way, do you have a phone, I need to make a call."
"Sure," I replied, and reached into my bag, but there was no phone. I had apparently left it at home.
"Sorry," I apologised.
"Thats OK," he said.
"Well bye, be well," I said to him and he wished me well also.
I have not stopped thinking about this incident. Firstly, we are confronted with similar incidences on a daily basis. Some people are obviously mentally ill, and addicted, or have a good thing going. The truth is, to me, it doesn't matter. I think very few people choose to live on the streets. It is extremely difficult. I look at their feet covered in abscesses, running sores, shuffling painfully. I do give money to people I like, even though people say don't
In the winter I will give out warm socks and underclothes. Sometimes I do nothing, nothing at all.
I remember when I worked in Richmond a family I worked with worked at Acme bakery and every friday they gave me loaves of bread. On my way home I saw a homeless couple and went to give them a couple of loaves. The man looked at them and told me they don't want none of that focaccia - just plain bread!!!!
Fussy Berkeley homeless.
My dilemma grows exponentially, as does the amount of homeless.
