The ironic thing is I ended my last post with there is beauty in the world beyond the canyon. Can someone remind me again the beauty?? I guess when we walk close to the streets there are dark days. Actually probably you don’t need to walk near the streets for there to be dark but today I am hanging onto my Ghetto Gospel.
One of our vendors died today. Everyone asks me how did he died but the question is how did she die? I am pretty devasted. She sold out of the city so I knew her less than some of the others but I had experienced her light. She was on the single parents pension and sold the ”Issue” to cover all the extra costs. Not many women can handle the work but she’d created a world doing it, she had her regular customers who would stop for a chat and she’d come to the Vendor Cafe to connect with the Big Issue community – aahh it hurts. So sudden. Too young.
And then one of my speakers is back laying his head on the streets tonight. Happy New Year. He used to live inside a Church in Rushcutters Bay, but they kicked him out today. A new minister with a grander vision of reclaiming back the Church. What fucking bullshit. My friend says to me “the thing about being homeless isn’t that you don’t have house, it’s that no one wants you.” And I am the biggest hypocrite of all. I want him to “wow” my students with fascinating stories of addiction and homelessness but it’s not ”wow” factor anymore. It’s just awful.But I don’t really want him living in my house. I refuse to be a role model. I got my own bottles. But anyway.
“Before we find world peace, we gotta find peace, in this war on the streets.My Ghetto Gospel. Those who wish to follow me, my Ghetto Gospel, I welcome with my hands and the red sun seems to last until the hills of gold, and peace to this young warrior without the sounds of guns.”
