Homeless men “You have never been homeless; therefore you cannot know how the homeless feel.” This is what I’ve been told by some street people I’ve met, fed, and taken to a shelter. Maybe I do know something about this. I have not lived a sheltered life.     He walks the streets nightly searching for his brothers -- sleeps under the sun anytime he can -- hides and shivers in the rain -- knows little of today and plans nothing for tomorrow -- lives entirely in the past -- trusts no one, having been hurt many times -- seeks food from back yard dumpsters and alleys between restaurants -- is the remains of America’s throw-away children -- was scorned and abused, beaten, and hidden away -- was once a bright-eyed child dreaming of Christmas -- found Santa was a fraud and the Christ-Child did not answer his prayers -- claimed a door-step for the evening as the cold northwest wind sweeps the winter snow -- puts a bottle to his lips and takes a swig -- will have its company through the night to grant him the solitude of a fitful sleep -- does not see tomorrow -- lived only in the past. Too afraid I was too afraid to become homeless. When I was a child, I lived at an institutional foster home, the Stetson Home for Boys, later at the horrific Roslindale Detention Center, still later the Lyman School for Boys, and then the Morgan Memorial Goodwill Inn. When I got a job, I rented a room. When I got a better job, I rented an apartment. When I lost my job I got another. I’ve lived in all kinds of shelters from the YMCA to my own home on Main Street, USA. Yes, I’ve been too afraid to become homeless. I once left a perfectly-good job in Taos, New Mexico, to take a position with a former employer in New Jersey. The job I left wasn’t a good paying job because it was a “startup” with little business. I wasn’t looking for a new job, but my former employer, the president and founder of a company for which I had previously worked, called me and asked me to come back to work for him. Therefore, I gave proper notice, wished my current employer good luck and drove to New Jersey with my belongings in-tow. After I found and rented an apartment I reported for work. The president called me into his office and said; “I changed my mine. You are not employed here.” I started to respond, “But you promised…” He interrupted, “So sue me!” So that is how I ended up in New Jersey with no income and no job. I needed to “stop the bleeding” so within two days I got a job as an on-the-road TV repairman making service calls and started to learn the location of the streets of northern New Jersey. In a few months I got a decent engineering job in California. That’s how I had previously learned to handle adversity. I learned that in “Reform School,” the Lyman School for Boys. Practically nothing ever goes well in reform school so you learn to minimize your losses when things turn foul. I got a job that could pay the rent first, and then I started to look for another. It’s just that simple. It’s also something that many homeless persons haven’t learned. Once something doesn’t go according to plan, once a job is lost, somebody dear dies, or any of the hundreds of other bad things that happen to most everybody else occurs, all hope is lost! Preparing schoolchildren I wish regular schooling would prepare young adults for life in the “real world.” That would surely prevent many from becoming homeless victims. However, many schools no longer even allow competitive sports. They don’t allow their students to win or lose. These students are going to be in a lot of trouble once they graduate. Since the 1980s, many schools have drawn the conclusion that team sports are an outdated and psychologically risky masculine vice that should be heavily regulated if not banned altogether. The ideals associated with high school sports and other competition such as spelling bees and science fair projects, are bitterly opposed by a formidable group of educators, psychologists, and health professionals who contend that competition threatens the emotional well-being of children. They claim the spirit of competition sends the wrong signals, undermining cooperative behavior. It has been said that children who fail to come in first suffer long-term trauma and their self-esteem risks becoming damaged for life. Competition in the workplace What have been lost in these arguments are the facts that once in the workplace, these children will be subjected to daily competition with ramifications far more serious than simply getting an “E” for effort. They will lose their jobs, their means of support, the lifelines of their existence, if they have not been taught to handle adversity. Even in the workplace, there are those who contend that fostering “team spirit” is much more important than completing projects. They fail to recognize the competitive nature of the work ethos, that teams are only a mechanism for sharing blame upon failure, and true accomplishments are performed by individual contributors who, even in sports, step up to the plate and win the ballgames. Happiness A long time ago I learned that one needs to make his own happiness. It’s true that happiness seldom comes from living alone, but one cannot expect others to care whether you are happy or not. You need to make yourself happy which, strangely, often comes from helping others. A man is a social being. In fact, neighborhoods, communities, villages, towns, counties, states, and even countries are simply collections of people bound together to help each other. The homeless have lost their communities and therefore the very essence of their existence. Luck Once one becomes homeless his options are limited. With no mailing address and no telephone, one can’t even respond to job offers! So-called halfway houses and homeless shelters serve to continue homelessness as the occasional resident becomes more dependent upon these services in the future. A cycle starts which can’t be broken except by luck -and luck doesn’t come easily to the homeless. --Richard B. Johnson Notes Author’s website This article may be freely copied or referenced. No copyright protection is claimed. The underlying HTML code is also in the public domain.