i'm down in san luis obispo for the weekend for work. the last time i was in this town was 11 years ago, halloween weekend, and on a shit-ton of acid. the second-to-last-time i tripped, with only slightly less traumatizing and frightening results...
anyhow, i'm here again, for work. i am, as a friend so eloquently put it, herding the homeless. i gather a small group of down-and-outters, hand them each a sign exclaiming "GOING OUT OF BUSINESS!" or "30% OFF!!!" or "EVERYTHING MUST GO!" and set them out at pre-determined street-corners like little chess pieces in this grand game of overconsumption.
and the reason that i do this is because it pays well. the more class-conscious among us are probably at least a little disgusted. i know that i am. but i also know that without this little side gig (and the catering one, all thanks be to derek) i'd never get out of the city. i realized this morning when i was driving to the beach (nice directions, gretch... not!) that i hadn't left the bay area for months. i think i made it to oakland for a tool show a while back with the laura's, but that's really it.
and also, the guys working with me: they're great. they like that they're getting a little cash for sitting around holding a sign. one of the old timers said yesterday that he'd be sitting downtown anyway, and the fact that he's getting paid to do it pretty much blows his mind. one of the guys is actually trying to get his shit together again, and dropping forty bucks in his lap for a few hours of work helps him get a shower and a new shirt for an interview.
i recognize that if it weren't for capitalism's requirement of about 5% unemployment i wouldn't be able to get these guys at all. i see that the consolidation of ownership in all sectors of the economy is what is leading to the going-out-of-business sales that give me something to do. i'm well aware that the company i'm working for is a carrion-eating parasite, leeching it's subsistence from the dead and dying life-long efforts of the mom-and-pops. but shit, motherfucker's gotta get paid, ya' hurrd!
seriously though, this is a bit of a dilemna for me.
any suggestions?
2 comments:
On an almost completely unrelated note, my buddy's homeless friends refers to those of us with permanent residences as "housies". So you could say things like "Fuck them, they're just a bunch of dumb housies" or "The housies are responsible for all the pain and suffering in the third world", which is probably true.
I think all you really can do is continue to stay conscious as possible, learn about them, pay attention to what society would like to sweep over a sill. You do what you can in this life, including feel the frustration of helplessness because at the very least you have that to give. It's like war and trauma and crisis and all the damaged things that tumble from society's shelves: those that do not suffer human tragedy ought to bear witness so that it doesn't go to nothing, so that tragedy becomes transformed to a humanity, a meaning, a springboard for action, an outrage, a call to nurture, what have you... and today it is that you have made this awful moment an arena for beauty because right now, people suck less and i miss my friend arjuna.
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