This combination post shouldn’t go together, but both
thoughts filled my brain this morning.
First I do not like the word unhoused. It sugar coats a
major problem in this country in there are way too many homeless. Homeless may
sound stark to some people, but the problem is stark. It needs to slap people
in the face. People do not like feeling uncomfortable, yet we need to make people
feel uncomfortable so they know the reality facing homeless people. So many
times we allow ourselves to let homeless people be out of sight so they are out
of our minds. This needs to change.
Do I have some magic answer? No and as part of my ongoing
platform efforts I will try and add some ideas. I have posted about the
homeless before even touching on some public policy. We need something. And
homeless like Latinos are a much larger variety of a group of people than the
labels suggest. People are homeless for a variety of reasons so there is no one
solution to homelessness. Which means there are no easy solutions to address this
problem.
Yet for now I wanted to state words do matter and saying
unhoused is just too woke. I certainly understand wanting to give people
dignity and it is especially important to give dignity to those who are struggling,
yet saying unhoused instead of homeless to me just doesn’t accomplish this
goal. Recognizing them as people first and foremost and going to meet them in
their situation to so they can tell you what they need shows much more dignity
to them than changing descriptive words. We need to see them for who they are, not
hide behind pleasantries.
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And strange but true in thinking about life, I made one of
those so profound to me, but probably everybody else has thought of it too
thoughts. Yes life should be fun.
I have made tons of mistakes, either I or my family has had
to crawl out of self inflicted wounds or sometimes the wounds came from other
sources. No matter the reason or cause somehow or another we have survived and
throughout it all I have to say I and my family have had tons of fun. I stress,
I worry, I fret, I have no idea what to do, but at some point we found a way to
just have fun no matter how bad we thought we were having it.
Also it shouldn’t matter if you believe in a creator or other
higher power or you are just secular. You need to make sure you have fun in
life. Because no matter which way you believe, life is too short as the saying
goes. And fun can be different for different people, but whatever it is, make sure
you enjoy it as much as possible. Some days may be all work, but that is okay
because when you can relax and let your hair down it makes it all the more enjoyable.
I struggle with people who work all the time or think they
must suffer. There is enough suffering, stress and things you have to do not to
enjoy as much time as possible. And if their only goal is to work for money,
that is sad.
There is so much to do. Anywhere from the proverbial gone
fishing to the highly charged adventure life. I fall somewhere in between
overall, yet many times fun has just been laughing with the better half and the
kids maybe driving somewhere or eating out or all of us just sitting at the
dinner table long after we finished eating. All the kids played sports at
various levels and had other school competitions and those were fun also. I do
not know how many Saturday mornings were spent on a field, gym auditorium,
cafeteria or somewhere else yelling and screaming or trying to be quiet for the
academic events, yet we all enjoyed cheering each other on. Or the Sundays we spent
teaching faith formation and the kids either having to go and giving us grief since
they went to parochial school or finding ways to get out of taking a class that
year. Weekends were always extremely busy as the kids grew up, but would never
change a moment. Sure our garage was never the cleanest, can’t say house since
the better half may read, lol, but did it really matter. Actually cleaning the
house was a family project and everyone had their weekly or alternating daily
chores. Most of the time it got done so why worry when it didn’t. People take
some things too seriously.
And yes summers were just as busy even though school was out.
The kids had their activities or played or were running around with friends
while the two so called adults worked. One of the grandparents always stayed
with us during the summer to be home while we worked which added to the things
to do. Grandparents always need to be running errands or needing special things
of their own which means Mom or Dad is driving around until 8 or 9 at night.
Yet nothing slowed us down when it came to enjoying the day. Or taking the
grandparent along for the infamous family vacation always added to madness that
we laugh about until this day. And with any family sometimes you can say three
words and everyone laughs, but the one who stuck their foot in their mouth at
the moment. Somethings are just etched into the family dynamic.
Find something you enjoy and make it a hobby or a treat. Do
not waste this life beating yourself up that things aren’t getting done or you
haven’t accomplished what you want in life. I am much older now and am at least
still trying to knock some things out. That is all you can do and while you are
doing it, go fishing or climb a mountain or plant a garden or scuba or snorkel
or ski or paint or write or have a mimosa at 9am on a random Tuesday, but don’t
sit around bemoaning how bad things are because as you well know shit happens.
So I thank God I finally learned I have had a good life
young enough to go out and enjoy it more even if I am walking a little slower.
And like I mentioned sometimes you are too busy and today I
didn’t get the beer I was promised, yet Cheers anyway
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