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Living on the street
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<blockquote data-quote="recoveringenabler" data-source="post: 620643" data-attributes="member: 13542"><p>Thanks for opening up the conversation Echo, as you can see, it is FAR from inappropriate. Interesting tales.</p><p></p><p>As you know, my entire family is riddled with mental illness. If they weren't mentally ill, they just became free spirits, which I guess in some ways I would define myself and one of my brothers as. Nonetheless, there is no absence of creativity and the spirit of adventure.</p><p></p><p>My schizophrenic brother lived on the streets of L.A. for many years. As Echo has stated, he was pretty okay and developed a community with the other homeless people. What I have found so interesting over the years is that "out there" what we often refer to as the fringes of society, are many little groups of like minded people who form communities. My sister who is an artist, lived on a sail boat for many years with her equally eccentric husband. When I would visit we would sail out and encounter other "boat people" who had gone off the grid as well. My sister had a printing press on the boat!! She created art, played her banjo and communed with others doing a similar lifestyle. They would trade beers for fish, or art for food, or whatever but trading and bartering were how they lived. They lived on the boat for years. Going to visit them at the time (it was probably about 25 years ago) was really a lot of fun and I met some interesting characters.</p><p></p><p>My brother, the non mentally ill chap, the free spirit, has traveled all over the world. At times he had a motor cycle and motored all over the US, Mexico, South America, Central America............and guess what? He met the "motor cycle crowd" doing the exact same stuff my sister was doing on the water. They formed communities, bartered, created art, played music.............I don't think drugs and alcohol were in heavy use, it was a little different. He did the same thing in Italy and other parts of Europe, in the Caribbean and many other places. But my point is that people who don't want to or can't abide by cultural rules leave the ranks in great numbers, but we don't really know about them until we make that step ourselves.</p><p></p><p>At one point in my illustrious career is a free spirit, I had left my job and home and house sat. I did that for quite awhile. I stayed in lovely homes and didn't work or have any responsibilities either.........it was one of the best times in my whole life. And, yes, I met others out there who were doing the same exact thing. I met an 80 year old woman who left her husband of 40 years when she was 60 and took off. She traveled all over the world. She was one of the most interesting people I have ever met. She and I volunteered to hang out with people who were dying and had no one to care for them. Our days were free to have adventures and volunteer to help. Once you get out there people find out about you so the house-sitting gigs are all over the place. I had so much fun. And I wasn't a kid, I was 43 years old. I was in a life transition and going through a period of loss, so I thought what the hell, go for broke. My 80 year old friend told me those of us who were out there doing this were called "floaters" or "professional enjoyers" I loved that. How I personally have negotiated having freedom and conforming is to do one or the other at different times in my life.</p><p></p><p>I think my Dad was quite a free spirit (and mentally ill as well) he traveled a great distance to come to the US when he was 18 years old. He had an enormous spirit of adventure............it didn't translate well to having kids though............I could always see the wanderlust in him and understood early on how difficult it was for him to try to balance his need for freedom with his responsibility for us. I think both suffered.</p><p></p><p>In a lot of ways I understand the need to break the rules and live "out there." Where it became dicey for me, is when that person out there in a presumably unsafe environment is my own child. It's funny how all those lines merge and become difficult to pick apart, at least for me they do.</p><p></p><p>I've always loved that quote by Helen Keller.........."life is either a daring adventure.........or nothing." Perhaps living on the streets is the daring adventure some of our kids are seeking..........</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="recoveringenabler, post: 620643, member: 13542"] Thanks for opening up the conversation Echo, as you can see, it is FAR from inappropriate. Interesting tales. As you know, my entire family is riddled with mental illness. If they weren't mentally ill, they just became free spirits, which I guess in some ways I would define myself and one of my brothers as. Nonetheless, there is no absence of creativity and the spirit of adventure. My schizophrenic brother lived on the streets of L.A. for many years. As Echo has stated, he was pretty okay and developed a community with the other homeless people. What I have found so interesting over the years is that "out there" what we often refer to as the fringes of society, are many little groups of like minded people who form communities. My sister who is an artist, lived on a sail boat for many years with her equally eccentric husband. When I would visit we would sail out and encounter other "boat people" who had gone off the grid as well. My sister had a printing press on the boat!! She created art, played her banjo and communed with others doing a similar lifestyle. They would trade beers for fish, or art for food, or whatever but trading and bartering were how they lived. They lived on the boat for years. Going to visit them at the time (it was probably about 25 years ago) was really a lot of fun and I met some interesting characters. My brother, the non mentally ill chap, the free spirit, has traveled all over the world. At times he had a motor cycle and motored all over the US, Mexico, South America, Central America............and guess what? He met the "motor cycle crowd" doing the exact same stuff my sister was doing on the water. They formed communities, bartered, created art, played music.............I don't think drugs and alcohol were in heavy use, it was a little different. He did the same thing in Italy and other parts of Europe, in the Caribbean and many other places. But my point is that people who don't want to or can't abide by cultural rules leave the ranks in great numbers, but we don't really know about them until we make that step ourselves. At one point in my illustrious career is a free spirit, I had left my job and home and house sat. I did that for quite awhile. I stayed in lovely homes and didn't work or have any responsibilities either.........it was one of the best times in my whole life. And, yes, I met others out there who were doing the same exact thing. I met an 80 year old woman who left her husband of 40 years when she was 60 and took off. She traveled all over the world. She was one of the most interesting people I have ever met. She and I volunteered to hang out with people who were dying and had no one to care for them. Our days were free to have adventures and volunteer to help. Once you get out there people find out about you so the house-sitting gigs are all over the place. I had so much fun. And I wasn't a kid, I was 43 years old. I was in a life transition and going through a period of loss, so I thought what the hell, go for broke. My 80 year old friend told me those of us who were out there doing this were called "floaters" or "professional enjoyers" I loved that. How I personally have negotiated having freedom and conforming is to do one or the other at different times in my life. I think my Dad was quite a free spirit (and mentally ill as well) he traveled a great distance to come to the US when he was 18 years old. He had an enormous spirit of adventure............it didn't translate well to having kids though............I could always see the wanderlust in him and understood early on how difficult it was for him to try to balance his need for freedom with his responsibility for us. I think both suffered. In a lot of ways I understand the need to break the rules and live "out there." Where it became dicey for me, is when that person out there in a presumably unsafe environment is my own child. It's funny how all those lines merge and become difficult to pick apart, at least for me they do. I've always loved that quote by Helen Keller.........."life is either a daring adventure.........or nothing." Perhaps living on the streets is the daring adventure some of our kids are seeking.......... [/QUOTE]
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