Keeping Up

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.