A roof and food

I'm lucky. I still have a job, I still have a roof over my head and I still have money to feed myself (and pay for this Internet connect, if I remember to pay the bill). There are times when I think we all forget how lucky we are to have these things. The scary thing is, if I were to lose my job, I would have about a month before I couldn't pay the rent and end up out of my apartment. And then what? I guess in my case I could head back to the homeland and stay with friends and family until I got back on my feet.

Others aren't so lucky. We probably see them every day and don't even notice. And the way things are going, there are going to be more Americans living on the streets or anywhere they can. Maybe.

One of the big fears I have in life is that I could someday end up one of those people we see walking around homeless and talking to invisible people. I doubt if I would really get that bad, but for some reason I see it within the realm of possibility for me. It would probably take a lot to get me to that point but who knows. I could swear I've seen visions of myself staggering through a city stark raving mad.

What set me off thinking about this was a post on reddit.com. The submitter of this post was not begging for charity, he was describing his day to day life as the newly homeless. And if you read through the replies, he hit a spot in the Internet. His means of surviving are not legal and he could get in some trouble if he gets caught. What's striking is that the community on reddit really came out with offers of support and suggestions. One of the suggestions he took to heart was to set up a blog that is starting to detail his situation. It is new, but an interesting look on the newly homeless.

I fear that we here in America are going to see more and more of this in the next few years. We just need to remember to take care of each other when we can.