Thank You For Ending Homelessness: part 1

My pace may not be that of others...
yet, it is what gets me...
everywhere.

I'm still writing 50K words on homelessness this month in my personal challenge to myself during NaNoWriMo 2012.

Today, that set of words took another path. Or road. Or train of thought. … Or whatever word you like to use for a stunning turnaround.

Over the last 8 days, I've been asking myself, “what do I want my world to know about homelessness?”

One of the primary answers is, “I want people to know … no, not just to know … to KNOW! To feel, to believe, to realize, to be aware we are all a part of making homelessness an issue of the past -- to end homelessness.”

“Okay, self … how can I do that?”

Further on "How do you perceive Homelessness?"

Yes, moi on the Dun-Dun at my 5?th birthday party
Celebrate my upcoming 58th with me
by giving a smile to someone around you.

Be forewarned, this word count does not go toward my personal challenge to write 50,000 words on homelessness for NaNoWriMo 2012.  The words in this post, however, are extremely important, none-the-less to thoughts on homelessness and how you perceive yourself and others.  No matter what part of the road of homelessness you happen to be on, or off.

The words you are going to read have not been written by me.

Familiar with S. I. Hayakawa?  or read another of his bio's here.

His book. "Language in Thought and Action" (Hayakawa, S. I., and Alan R. Hayakawa. Language in Thought and Action: Fifth Edition. 5th ed. Harvest Original, 1991.) is where the excerpted words come from.

It's difficult to be a part of social media and not know, know of, or be acquainted with MAD MEN (The term "Madison Avenue" is often used metonymically for advertising, and Madison Avenue became identified with the American advertising industry after the explosive growth in this area in the 1920s.  -- cited from “Madison Avenue.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, November 5, 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Madison_Avenue&oldid=515450380.)

I'd like you to consider "The Story of A-Town and B-Ville:  A Semantic Parable" from the panorama of any social injustice you support, crusade against, advocate for those experiencing it.  For me, today, the vista I'm viewing it from is homelessness.  I find it particularly poignant, because as a person experiencing homelessness during the month of January 2011, I spent my nights in the local National Guard Armory on a cot with 199 other people sleeping out of the elements, as part of the then available "Winter Shelter."

Change Yourself, Change the World

My gosh!
This is when that shirt wasn't faded!
Must be ... uhm ...
20 years ago?
How have I changed?

Being ensconced in shelters, food banks, poverty assistance programs, as a user;

Observing the same systems as an advocate;

Pondering the systems I was brought up in, or, more truthfully had to survive through from infancy thru major portions of adulthood;

As my voice grows to its full timber, character, and expression, I find myself looking for ways-and-means to alter ... transform ... change what I perceive to be unhealthy, unbalanced, and not-working in my communities.

My strongest belief is "if I keep doing things the same way, expecting different results, I am crazy-making."

A question that occurs, is "How many times do you try something before concluding it's crazy-making?"

Did You Ask Yourself "What do I believe?"

So! What questions have you been asking yourself about your beliefs?

What beliefs did you examine?

What did you discover about why you came to believe things?

I promised you some of my answers so we can play this game together.

I believed I knew where I was going with this when I started the first piece oh so many weeks ago.

Paths to Change: Homelessness, Poverty, and Abuse.

The most important event in my life …  being homeless.

The crowd hushes.  Murmuring abounds. 

Where in the undercurrent rumblings do your murmurs fall?

• “Did she really just say that?”
• “How pathetic, the most important event in her life is/was being homeless?” 
• “What?
• Being born wasn’t eventful?
• Having significant others wasn’t eventful?  Working wasn’t eventful? 
• Giving birth wasn’t eventful?”

• “You’ve got to be kidding! Of everything in your life and you feel being homeless is/was the most important event?"
• "Shameful!” 
• "What does she mean?"

Rd smiles mirthfully, raises her hands to quiet the crowd, nods, and the talk begins…