Have you ever had a real conversation with a homeless person?

No because 'Home is Where the Heart is'


Hotwater

 

i guess it depends on how you define "real conversation." i used to manage a pizza place that was located directly between a plasma center and a beer store, so i had homeless people coming in CONSTANTLY. sometimes we would chat, but it usually consisted of them telling me lies and asking for money and me saying no. there were also a couple regulars who would come in and talk just because they had nothing better to do, but they were always drunk so the conversations were not exactly deep. plus, i had to kick them out whenever they inevitably started bothering paying customers.

also, the place i'm currently interning has a couple families that were homeless until just recently, but they aren't anymore. and my conversations with them have been pretty superficial too. and there have been a couple incidents where i just talked to an interesting homeless guy on the street, but those guys were interesting because they were obviously crazy.

so by my definition, yes, plenty of times. but i'm not sure if that's what you meant.

 

you dont know how people got into their situation. remember they are people. a smile or hello may be the best thing you can do for them.

 

Yeah man I sure have. If I count all the talks I had with myself during the 11 month period of my life when I was as homeless as a man could be

, then I'd say I was damn near an expert at the subject of homelessnes. I make a point to talk to many today and help those I can.

Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk

 

I supported a homeless guy with every last penny of my life's savings when I was 18 years old. He threatened to kill us over money. He was a really swell guy. :tongue:

 

Very true

That's an interesting way to put it. I definitely agree that the wisdom on display is almost unbelievable sometimes. Makes you wonder what the true path toward knowledge and meaning really looks like compared to the lives most people live.

 

@ broony....Beautiful Story...



Cheers Glen.

 

yeah i have a pretty cool friend thats one, meet him awhile ago, i knew him from the neighborhood.When i used to smoke i burned with him. Pretty cool dude, hes not on the streets anymore,which is good for him so yeah thats that in a nut shell.

 

yes, plenty. some of the most interesting people ive come across were and probably still are homeless

 

'Self proclaimed rebels say "We must oppose the system!"
"You gotta take a stand!" "If your not against them your with them!"
signs read "Support the troops bring em' home!" "No more innocent victims!"
but when a homeless veteran asks for spare change your to busy protesting to even listen
And I'm no different I live in conflict and contradiction but it can be so beautiful
when I don't reject what lies within
It's beautiful the way agony connects us to the living
I think of the world when I hurt, and keep on existing in the now'
Michael Larson-Smile

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dsz4dB6DuM"]Eleanor Rigby- The Beatles - YouTube

 

considering as how i've been one myself, every conversation of the many i'd had at the time while living in homeless shelters and eating in soup lines, would, i do believe, fall distinctly within this catagory.

 

Back when I was in a band, one of the places where we played a lot had a homeless guy living in the woods behind it.

The young kids gave him hell, but I used to take him inside the hall and give him drinks and food and stuff.

A few months later, I found out my father was letting him stay at his house down the road. One night, when I was housesitting for my father, I actually talked to the guy for a while (I wasn't letting this guy stay at the house alone with me without talking to him)

He had a lot of very interesting things to say...apparently he was a stockbroker that had some bad luck at work and at home. A lot of things spiraled downhill for him and he resorted to drugs.

He was so excited to tell me that (at that time) he was 3 years clean, but 4 years homeless.

I often wonder what he's up to now. I know he got a job at the local liquor store but I don't know what happened after that...I don't go out there anymore.

 

Yes. I regularly talk with homless people.

I try to get to know the regular ones near where I work.

The first thing you gotta do is remember that "homeless people" are not a uniform class. They are all individuals. Each is different. They have a different story to tell, different needs, different desires, and there are different ways you can help them.

Sometimes it doesn't take very much at all to make a huge difference (like the spirit level I bought for one, who was a trained bricklayer and knew he could get some work on the construction sites in London if only he coudl get himself a spirit level and a pair of work boots ...)

 

Would you mind talking a bit about your experiences? Obviously a situation like that must have been terribly difficult, and I respect you for surviving that kind of life. I wonder what sorts of people you met?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKXJ8PMG00A&feature=related"]Status Anxiety - Part 3 - YouTube

skip to 5 mins

 

I've been homeless.

 

Thought about this thread the other day when we found ourselves with a stubborn car battery in the parking lot of our favorite headshop downtown an hour away from where I live. There are a lot of dirty beggars who hang out around that area, often sitting on the stoop of the headshop and asking for cigarettes and pocket change. One of the cleaner looking ones (actually I was shocked to find he was out there asking for cigarettes and change, too) came over and struck up a conversation with us and asked everyone who passed if they had jumper cables for us. He was really nice, apparently he had gotten himself in trouble and the only family member he had left kicked him out on his ass. He was super nice, though, and man, he talked up a storm. I don't think he was homeless, but he might have been and just got lucky with a shower and clean clothes that day. We gave him a bit of pocket change and everyone with cigarettes (everyone but me, lol) gave him a few. I hope he got enough change to be able to buy himself a burrito or something, he was a really nice guy and if I could've helped him out any more than I did, I would have.

 

that's exactly why we've never conversed.

 

My husband and I once picked up a homeless woman hitchhiking and drove her nearly twelve hours. She was so inspiring.