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Chisholm's Custom Wheels Qui Si Parla Campagnolo |
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I worked for a social services agency for the last 14 years of my career. I thought it was a transition job after losing my job during the dot.com recession. It was the most fulfilling job of my career. I decided to stay because I felt that trying to save the world one person at a time made me feel validated. Getting back to the quote above, many people with drug and alcohol issues suffer from mental illness and they are self medicating. Of course, it doesn't work! My father was a WWII vet and suffered from severe PTSD. He spent the last 25 years of his life as a dysfunctional alcoholic. I was fortunate to have a mother to provide food and shelter, or I would have been homeless. Perhaps that why I enjoyed giving someone else a helping hand.
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"There is no perfectionism on the road to contentment." |
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#125
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#126
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We are all much closer to sleeping in a car than we would ever care to admit. dave |
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My sister was (and may be today if she's alive) homeless and living in her car. Her other 'home' was a VA hospital. She has a mental illness. And when she has care and medication and help around her she's ok. When she doesn't, a side of her comes out that all the love in the world can't breach.
She had a 20-year Naval career. It's when she got out that she and her life fell apart. I don't know the details of her life in the Navy but she rose to be a Lt. and had a pretty substantial degree of responsibility and command of not a few people. If I look at her life inside and outside the Navy, at least one major difference was structure and support and care. One of the great American myths is self-reliance. The rugged individual who pulls themselves up by their bootstraps. And yes, those folks exist. But I wonder how many there really are? And how many of us keep our ***** together because of others? Because of structure and support and care? Are we 'strong' because of the strength around us? If we lost our moorings and bearings and the walls and hands supporting us, where would we be? I'll be honest. Growing up, my sister was the 'strong' one, the disciplined one, the one on the straight and narrow path. I was the flakey one. And there are moments now when I feel things and wonder, could I fall off the edge too if it wasn't for those around me and what is around me? She fell off the edge. Could I? It makes it harder for me to judge others harshly and far easier for me to want everyone to have structure and care around them. My sister isn't a bad person. Only an ill one, and on her unlucky days, an alone one. Last edited by Climb01742; 04-20-2019 at 11:13 AM. |
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There are some incredible personal stories here.
Thanks to all who have shared them. SPP™ |
#129
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If I buy another bike anytime soon and my wife finds out....that could happen. |
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#131
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In reality, we are much closer to Victorian (or should I say, Dickensian) England than most of us care to admit. One merely has to look at how overwhelming majority of the elderly are funding their retirement to understand why this is so... |
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I was homeless for about 6 weeks during graduate school. I needed to finish my Masters thesis. My graduate assistance had run out and I did not want to go into debt. So I found an abandoned house in the sticks and slept in a sleeping bag and built a fire. I bathed with a garden hose behind a barn. It was winter time and it was cold. Sometimes I just slept in the lab. I ate ramen and free coffee. It was tough but I was but I was young, knew I had a future. I cannot imagine doing this with kids or not having a job. Also, I did have safety nets. I could of swallow some humble pie and called my parents or taken a student loan but I did not. I was never scared of in fear for my life. I cannot imagine being homeless in a big city.
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***IG: mttamgrams*** Last edited by joosttx; 04-20-2019 at 12:28 PM. |
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About 12 years ago, my life was headed for the crapper. Job flushing, relationship gone, finances not good. Again, I got lucky and fell in feathers instead of crap. Looking back, the distance between the two piles was very, very small. If things had gone even a little different, I don't know what would have happened to me. By the grace of God, as they say. The cushion is frighteningly small. |
#134
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We’d call this camping out. Tough to see the parallels to the topic at hand.
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#135
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I agree. Except for the camping out part
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***IG: mttamgrams*** |
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