I passed by a homeless man who was packing up his stuff off a drive way 9:30 in the morning. It was not his driveway. He just decided to park himself there as a residence. I first was afraid to talk to him or even look at him but I was curious. I thought to myself, what would Viral Mehta do? He would walk up to the guy and talk to him like a human being. So I scrambled up some courage and walked up to him and introduced myself. I wanted to know how he became homeless, what happened, and what keeps him in this lifestyle.
John is a baby boomer who sang the song of victimhood. He had problems with his parents, he did not feel his parents loved him and according to him they were ashamed of him. For what reasons, he can't seem to point out at all. He felt his mother did not financially support him because he had to pay for his own college. But they paid for everything else in his life and let him live with them until 7 years ago. That's a long time because the guy is like in his 50's.
He loves backpacking alone because he can't seem to get along with anyone long enough to enjoy their company. He was a commercial photographer and went to art school. He met his wife there and they were married when he was 24 years old, for a very brief period. Today, he still has the ring on his finger. He fell from a mountain because he was wreckless and didn't get full trained or educated on rock climbing or ice climbing. He is on heavy medication. He's at war with the Mayor for not taking better care of him. He prefers to sleep on the street then to rent a room because he said he needs to rent money for his lifestyle. He has money, because all his gears were top notch. The guy evens has a laptop. He claims 900 dollars of governmental support is not enough to have his lifestyle so he cannot rent a room, nor does he want to move into support housing.
I stood in the cold for 45 minutes talking to John. For the first 35 minutes John's body shook in fear, anxiety, and nervousness.
