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Starting out with nothing....
| Philosophy 101 |
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Starting out with nothing.... |
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Trevor Senior Member
since 1999-08-12
Posts 700Canada |
How and what do you think you would do in life if you had one set of clothing, twenty dollars, no shelter and no friends or family? |
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jbouder Member Elite
since 1999-09-18
Posts 2534Whole Sort Of Genl Mish Mash |
The first thing I would try to do is find work. Hopefully there would be some sort of shelter where I could at least lay my head down and get a shower. I have made twenty dollars stretch a very long way in my lifetime and am confident that I could do it again if I had to. Food banks are in every town and I think they could keep me fed until I could fend for myself. But I would work. I would work hard and and long and eventually climb from the muck. Maybe I am an idealist but I still believe, generally, that hard work is eventually rewarded with success. Not having friends or family would actually make things a little easier. There would be less humiliation (as far as friends are concerned) and no responsibility to care for those under my care. So, if you don't mind, I would like to add a spin to your thread: "How and what do you think you would do in life if you had one set of clothing, twenty dollars, no shelter and no friends or family to rely on and were responsible for the care of children?" Jim "If I rest, I rust." -Martin Luther |
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Angel Rand Member
since 1999-09-04
Posts 134London UK, and Zurich Switzerland |
I agree with Jim on this one. I too would try my very hardest to find work and like him I am convinced that " I would work hard and and long and eventually climb from the muck. Maybe I am an idealist but I still believe, generally, that hard work is eventually rewarded with success." If I had children depend on me I guess I would have to place them in foster care till I got my feet back on the ground. Although I would always want my kids with me it is not really fair to subject them to such hardship just to keep them with me. And in my opinion the wellbeing of my kids comes first. But I would visit as often as I possibly could and take them back as soon as it was at all possible. Angel  |
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Trevor Senior Member
since 1999-08-12
Posts 700Canada |
Personally I would TRY my hardest to get on my feet but the odds truly are stacked against one. History has shown it is easier to fall then to get back up. Jbouder: " Hopefully there would be some sort of shelter where I could at least lay my head down and get a shower. " Most city shelters lack beds for the amount of homeless people as so a gaurenteed bed you may not find. And if you were in a smaller town there probably wouldn't be a shelter though a church may take you in. "I have made twenty dollars stretch a very long way in my lifetime and am confident that I could do it again if I had to." Yes but I'm guessing you already had some food in the fridge and a place to live. "Food banks are in every town and I think they could keep me fed until I could fend for myself." Yes but you could only eat nonparishable products or cold products. No residency, no stove. Say there wasn't a food bank near where you were? "But I would work. I would work hard and and long and eventually climb from the muck. Maybe I am an idealist but I still believe, generally, that hard work is eventually rewarded with success." This I think is debatable, maybe yes if generally speaking but there is a chance that "luck" is not with you and you can't get a break. I think the longer someone is on the street the more difficult it must be to pick oneself up and if you can't catch a break quickly you might be destined to be on the street for a long time. I really, truly wonder how everyone would do if forced to restart their life with absolutely nothing? How would it feel to lose everything and have no family or friend support? "Not having friends or family would actually make things a little easier. " I'd prefer to have someone I could turn to in my desperate hour of need. Screw humiliation, pride isn't a necessity of life but food and shelter are  " So, if you don't mind, I would like to add a spin to your thread:" You can't just answer the F'in question can ya  "How and what do you think you would do in life if you had one set of clothing, twenty dollars, no shelter and no friends or family to rely on and were responsible for the care of children?" I'm with Angel on this one. I'd give up my children until I could provide properly for them, it would be difficult but it wouldn't make much sense for you to drag your kids through hell with you. Anyways thanks Angel and Jbouder for your responses, take care, Trevor |
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Ron
Administrator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-05-19
Posts 8669Michigan, US |
Strangely enough, this actually happened to me, in spirit if not in exact detail. I was 29 years old, running a chain of nine restaurants in San Diego, 11 years into a successful career in the food service industry. And bored out of my mind. A man I knew hardly at all offered me a job, fifty dollars a week plus twenty percent of the profits, to run his small weekly newspaper, the San Diego Chronicle. The newspaper had existed for seventeen years, seldom going over eight pages, surviving entirely on "legal notices" and a few classified. "Put together some good special-interest articles," Steve urged me. "Hire a sales team and fill the paper with display advertising." It was a long shot. I knew that going into it. There wasn't even the potential for a big payoff, all risk and little gain. But I was young, cocky, and filled with dreams. I worked twenty hour days, sleeping in our plant most nights. I was the writer, the graphic artist, the photographer and, at times, our only salesman. From early Monday until the issue was put to bed Tuesday night was a nonstop flurry, a mad rush to fill columns, meet deadlines, with always the real possibility the out-sourced presses would run with huge globs of white space. It was the most exhausting time of my entire life. And, without a doubt, the most exciting. Eight months later, after several larger issues that lost money, after paying salesmen's draws without accompanying sales, Steve told me he could no longer afford to pay me the fifty bucks a week. I had already gone through my savings. When I was 19 and sold my photo studio, the only thing I had kept was a Mamiya RB, a large-format camera costing $1,200 when cars still went for three grand. I pawned it for $75. I was broke, but still stubborn. I worked for another two months after Steve stopped paying me entirely. To this day, I don't know how. And I won't attempt to explain why. But, finally, I had to admit I had failed. Worse, it seemed I had dug myself into a hole from which there seemed little chance of recovery. I no longer slept at the plant just because the hours demanded it, but because I had given up my apartment. My car payment was four months behind. I hate frankfurts because a package of 10 cost only $1.19 and would last for two days. My family was 2,000 miles away, in Michigan, and every other soul I knew in California was friend or family to my estranged, soon to be ex, wife. And I still had pride. I drove to Orange County, 90 miles North, all but exhausting the last of my gas. Partly that was to get away from those I would have to admit failure to, partly it was to hide my car from those who wanted to repossess it. It took me three days to find a job, assistant manager at a small Mexican dinner house. For three weeks, until my first paycheck, I ate burritos and tacos, sleeping in my car (moving it from time to time, though never far because I had no gas), washing and shaving each morning in the restaurant bathrooms before any of the crew arrived. I used that first paycheck for a very tiny, one-room studio apartment - and took the most luxurious shower of my life. Fortunately the apartment was close to work, because a month later the bank caught up with me and took the car. It took nine months of solid work and deprivation before I really got back on my feet again, enough to buy a used car and look for a better job. It was two years before I stopped counting the change in my pocket every night before going to sleep. To this day, I don't think going to work for the newspaper was a mistake. Never before nor since have I really enjoyed life as much. My mistake, of course, was in refusing to admit defeat and cut my losses. I paid dearly for that mistake, but I survived it. Twenty years later, I look back on those days and realize how very much I really learned from the experience. I've never looked at money the same since, and I think I came to understand the difference between necessitates and luxury. The confidence I gained from that survival gave me the courage, not too many years later, to start my own business - knowing that if it failed I would, again, survive. Perhaps most importantly, I learned the only real security we have in this world is our own abilities and skills, and the willingness to put them to work. The world (or our own foolish mistakes) can take away everything else we have. But what we have learned, what we can do through skill and work, will always remain with us. No one can take that. |
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jbouder Member Elite
since 1999-09-18
Posts 2534Whole Sort Of Genl Mish Mash |
TREVOR: "You can't just answer the F'in question can ya[?]" No. And watch your language! These are excellent points, Trevor. There are countless details that would have to be factored into any circumstance. Ron's experience is not so different from mine (coincidentily in Orange County, California) in many respects ... but my experience was different in hundreds of other ways. I am not going to ignore the possibility of an impossible situation. But I am not going to downplay my resourcefulness either. If I had to I could get a cardboard box, write "Gulf War Vet" (I am not one, by the way) on one side and stand at the highway interchange. It works ... ask Ron about the people who do it in Southern California. Again, we have to stop meeting like this. I am starting to talk about you, by name, to my wife. Scary, huh? Jim "If I rest, I rust." - Martin Luther |
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Trevor Senior Member
since 1999-08-12
Posts 700Canada |
Hello everyone, Jim: "Again, we have to stop meeting like this. I am starting to talk about you, by name, to my wife. Scary, huh?" I can hardly believe it....I'm becoming a household name!!!! It's not scary yet....as long as you don't become one of those stalking/obsessive fans "If I had to I could get a cardboard box, write "Gulf War Vet" (I am not one, by the way) on one side and stand at the highway interchange." I'd probably rely on the old deaf-mute scam...not to downplay those who really are deaf mute...but I'd feel more "respected" (but for false reasons of course). Ron: Terrific story, thanks for sharing it with me. My parents went through some rough times when I was a kid and having good solid family support probably made the difference between eating and going hungry, and a family sleeping in a car or in a house. I'm not saying that the majority can not get back on their feet without a little determination and struggle but what about the people who give it all and just can't seem to stand on their own due to circumstance? Say you hadn't gotten a job within three days? Say the economy was bad and there just wasn't work around? Maybe there was someone you beat out of that job who ended up becoming homeless? (Yes this is just wild speculation ) Maybe if you hadn't gotten that job there wouldn't be this forum? Maybe you would have become a permanent homeless person? Who knows....Anyways I started this thread to try and bring some attention to how difficult it must be to have to start over with nothing and I think your story Ron is an excellent testament to the fact that it can be done...but not without struggle and less strong willed people might have given up. ANyways, many thanks to all who've given their opinions to the subject. Take care everyone, Trevor |
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