[Miscellany]

* I can't help showing my rather hideous (yet strangely fascinating) hot glue gun damaged blistery hand to everyone. It's like a strange compulsion I have to interrupt people and just say heeey, look what happened to me, like some derranged lunatic. Maybe I'm a little proud of my battle scars, as if it legitimises my martyr-like suffering as a teacher because it's visible. You'd think I'd fought in WWII or something.

* This morning I saw the most perfectly matched couple crossing the road at Hoddle/Johnston (that's right, bogan capital). The girl had dyed got any blacker? hair and was wearing a studded belt and she was holding the leash of the world's meanest looking dog. Her boyfriend had a Lars Urlich type look about him, but with loooong side burns and was wearing a shirt that said Guns don't kill people. Bullets do on the back. It was comedy gold. Of course I was sitting at the lights listening to We Built this City by Starship on 39 (yea, we're talking gangsta level) - so who am I to make fun of others?

* Also this morning as I was driving along Flinders St, I zipped past a homeless man sort of wandering along with his bag and looking like he could use a wash. He looked absolutely miserable. How many homeless people do you think you'd see in a day? Do you think about them at all? Is it easier not to? I spend a lot of my week living in my suburban bubble teaching art to the kids. I'm not really confronted by images of people who have nowhere to live and no food to eat. I don't hear of many people who are born and die homeless - but I do hear about people who become homeless through a series of circumstances. Homeless is something someone becomes.

I used to read a blog written by a woman in England who was homeless. She lived in her car and washed wherever she could (hospitals, gym etc) - and updated her journal from the local library. Apparently now she has a book deal - not surprised her blog was amazing. A year or so before becoming homeless she was holding down a top job and living a lifestyle most people would feel envious about. I don't know if these things are true or not - who can tell in blogland anyway? But it's become apparent to me that very little in life is absolute. Shit happens, so to speak. How certain are you about your life path? Are you paving or are you just walking? Have you ever thought about being homeless (or been homeless)?

* Oh, and Dawson found the movie. It was scrambled and in a temp file so some of the quality was lost, but still - phew!

posted by M at 11:14 am 19 comments