Other Peoples Lives...

As we were cleaning up in this space, picking up the residue of the lives of about a dozen different individuals, we had to deal with the things that they, for whatever reasons, thought were not worth bringing on to their next stop.

It was disgusting to look at, smell, and physically handle.

The first emotional reaction is "Who are these people?" "Who would live like this?"

But...

As I look through these things I notice that this was the home of a single mother with three kids... she had one in high school and two in the elementary school. She worked two jobs and had a parent that lived in Tennesse. She did not manage to pay all of her bills. She had her kids drawings up on the 'fridge...

I notice that this was the home of the young man who worked last for the Dish Television company... he was still trying to finish up his high school diploma... he was supporting two other people who were not working... he loved to read, (mostly fantasy and science fiction), and had a number of books on eating more healthy...

I notice that this was the home of somewhere between 4 to 6 people with no visible means of income. They ate only packaged foods and played a lot of video games... the only words they left behind that were in paper were the dunning letters of people whose goods and services they enjoyed but as yet had not paid for...

These are the lives of people, the lives of our neighbors.

When I look at these apartments, with the crappy toilets (oooh the pun, the pun!), the ceilings falling down, the broken windows and shattered ceiling fans, I realize that the people who lived here didn't create these conditions...

The Slumlord who overcharged these people for rent and collected every week is the guy to look for! He made sure that he took just enough from them so that they could make it to the next week, but nothing more. He had so little respect for the people who paid him for their homes that he wouldn't repair any of the basic services that failed in these residences...

He's the one that would rent to these people whose lives we don't see on weekly television sitcoms. Our neighbors who, like my family, are doing everything they can to allow their kids to not feel the pressure of adulthood until they are ready and find some measure of security? safety? comfort? all of these things but maybe more, maybe Home.