So when I was 19 I wound up in New Orleans with some gutter punks (pre-Katrina, circa '96), they used to pick up my sleeping bag at dawn and shake it chanting that it was time to go "fuck shit up". We wound up at the outdoor pedestrian mall. I finally asked what we were doing there, why did we go there every day, how were we "fucking shit up". "Brat," they said, for that was my street name, "we are being seen where we are not welcome." This motivates me often. It should motivate us all.
@tippitiwichet sagely, that.
@Coffee_and_Salt Years later, I enrolled in psych and learned about natrualistic studies, and wished so hard that I was in school while living amongst that pack of wolves. They were all sages. It was a trip for my suburban butt to learn from them. If you weren't one of them, which happened on me by accident as I only "smoked hippie drugs", something they frowned upon highly and I had to make up for, if you weren't one of them you were prey, and it was amazing. Wild and beautiful, the lot of 'em.
@tippitiwichet Wolves make strong and dangerous educators. You’ll learn something, one way or another.
were you able to stay in touch with any? I hope they fared well in their wilds.
@tippitiwichet I’m glad you had that experience. I bet they made sure to spread the knowledge far and wide. You can save lives with the right philosophies. Especially for people in vulnerable places.
@Coffee_and_Salt Look, this experience was everything, taught me all that I needed to know. Whatever the crisis, I will survive with what is on my back. Pretty sure you've seen me complain about my gold digging mom. I grew up seething about getting everything I asked for, except compassion. These dudes, they were very up front about "We will live on your waste. The change that falls on the sidewalk, that's all we need." The unspoken bit, the thing they really lived for? Ruthless loyalty. Wolves.
@tippitiwichet 🖤 that’s solid survival.
wherever their roams have taken them, I hope they are well.
@Coffee_and_Salt Sigh. No. I hope they did well, too. Especially Patches, who I one time had to pull out of traffic because he kept trying to bum smokes from passing cars. I don't have a lot of hope for him, but actually, I bet Filth, Cisco, Spider, and Rat would all make excellent politicians. If I extended it beyond gutter punks, I could make a nice list of people and their sage like philosophies that will all make you happy about living on the street, and not a part of the greater whole.