Turning The Page

After all the adrenaline ran out I was left sick as a dog like a handful of others in this competition.  I’m typing this as I lay in bed.

I haven’t blogged for three days because I’ve been busy, I’ve been sick, and I’ve been hoping I’d come up with something clever to say.  Some sort of final exclamation mark instead of a coma.  (Dare I quote Seinfeld a second time?  LOL) but ‘I want to leave on a highnote’  I would love to have the answers to reducing poverty in this city, hell, I would love to have one answer on how to reduce the poverty in this city, but I don’t have any.  I just don’t.  Last week I felt stripped of my dignity and the smallest act of kindness reminded me that I was still a human being.  On that fateful Saturday night (I love the italics button it makes things just the right amount of dramatic) when I screwed everything up by running out of time and spending my $5 on McDonalds before rushing to my second job, some guy held the door for me, and shot me a smile.  A smile. (see?) After 5 days of feeling lower than dirt, that turned my entire day around.  I felt like a million bucks after than lone ‘random act of kindness’.  So is THAT actually the answer?  Is THAT what I take with me and move forward with?  THAT puts me on the front lines on the war against poverty?

All we need to do is smile and open doors for people?  Sorry, it can’t be that easy.

 

TUESDAY’S LEFT-OVER QUESTIONS TIME:

When it comes to social justice, activism and advocacy, people who engage in the issues often talk about how they feel compelled to act – the idea that with knowledge and understanding comes responsibility. Many of you are thinking about “what comes next” – “where do we go from here.”  How might you contribute to bringing these issues forward in our community?

Next stop?  SONGS FOR SUPPER- The Refinery, Sept 19th.  If you don’t know the name ‘Chris Brinklow’, you should.  As someone who has used the Food Bank’s services in the past, this young man was moved to tears one morning while being a Teacher’s Aide at an inner city school as he was approached by a little boy who was crying out of hunger.  Personally, as a father of a little boy, this is one of the most disturbing images that remains in my head and I only got the ‘Coles Notes’ version from Mr. Brinklow.  Anyway, after getting the little boy some food, Chris chose to ACT and put together a fundraiser called Songs For Supper- where 7 or 8 local musicians donate their talents in one giant night of music.  All proceeds go to The Foodbank and cash and food donations are welcomed as well.  I have had the absolute pleasure of being the MC  2 out of the last 4 years and Chris has asked me to host again this year.  So I’m hoping some of you will come, hell, I’ll reserve a table for my ‘Foodbank Challenge peeps’  I would be honored to see all of you sitting in the audience that night.  As of right now, the musicians, (I’m talking folks like Carrie Catherine, Sarah Farthing and Jared, lead singer of ‘All Of The Above’) are trying to arrange a Foobank Challenge of their own as they gear up for the event, so it will be a great opportunity to hear the stories of their struggles as well.  Hope to see you all there.

What has been the biggest eye opener for you doing this challenge and what do you intend to do with this information / experience?

I talked about this on Tuesday night.  The misconception out there is that people living in poverty ‘just made/make bad decisions’  It’s assumed that if they  suddenly made the right choices, they could easily pull themselves out of the gigantic rut and all their problems would be solved.  That can’t be further from the truth.  It’s impossible to do.

On the last day of the challenge someone told me that to get the proper groceries, ‘these people’ just need to ‘get on a bus, get to a good grocery store, buy fresh products, and take it back home on the bus’ (and I’m filling in the blanks but I’m guessing in their mind- part 2 to that was- viola!  Food problems solved.  Well….I’m a 32 year old  male who (not saying this braggy) but is extremely heath-conscious- I’m in the gym 5 days a week, I try to eat and drink the right things as much as possible,  plus I have no physical setbacks or mental illness…. and there’s no way in hell I would have had the energy to do all that after working a full day at any point last week.  And I’m talking WITHOUT bringing my 5 year old along.   I look at my Saturday trip to McDonalds, even if I was a single parent WITH a car, I would have paid for a babysitter, and bought supper on the run…..for 3 hours of extra work?  Would that have even been worth it?  Probably not.

What do I intend to do with this information?  All I can do is tell that story over and over.  Stories resonate deeper when it’s no longer “I saw this guy at The Friendship Inn..”  but  ”I WAS this guy at The Friendship Inn…”  From Day 1 I said, “all I hope is that my message changes one person’s misconceptions”. (or whatever I wrote to that effect)  Have I?   God I hope so.   I like to think I have.  Thinking I haven’t makes my insides hurt.

How will you support the food / poverty issue in the future?

I can support them financially with my donations, but after last week, we all know that’s no longer enough.  So we tell these stories, we tell our stories.

What is the one concrete step that you would take to address the issue of poverty?

I think I took it.  It was called The 7 Day Foodbank Food Basket Challenge.  It was brutal.  Now all I can do is tell anyone who will listen and hope I’m contagious.  (and I meant my knowledge and understanding would be contagious… NOT my current illness…. sometimes this unnecessarily-wordy-romantic writing gets read at face value)

Reports on poverty consistently state that it is in our collective economic interest to reduce poverty. Why do you think government has not responded to those recommendations?

We lived it and we don’t have the answers. Sadly, I truly believe every person living in these conditions has a different story with a different solution.  That’s where the enveloping feeling of defeat comes from.  You can’t work one on one with every person struggling in Saskatoon, but in reality that’s what needs to be done.  I’m not defending it at all, but Governments like issues they can fix with a buzz-word filled bumpersticker-type campaign; poverty isn’t one of those.  You can’t even use alliteration which is usually the staple of a good Government initiative- check it out:   “Poverty Pulls Pennies..”?  ”Poverty Peaks Panic”?  ”Poverty Pleases Players” ?    See?  It can’t be done.  (It also doesn’t rhyme)

 

Alright, the Neo Citrin is kicking in BIG TIME, so I’ve only got a few minutes left- here’s some random thoughts I haven’t committed to Blog-form yet:

-Choosing Splenda as one of my pantry items was a mistake.  My logic was ‘all I’m gonna do is drink coffee, so it might as well be sweet‘  By day 2 I was drinking it black.  I DID put some on my plain yogurt which was heavenly, but all in all, it was a complete waste of a pantry item…..until now when I suddenly just thought of making ICED COFFEE WITH THE STUFF…OH, COME ON!

-no one talked about smoking/drinking or drugs.  I’m guessing none of us smoke and OBVIOUSLY none of us do drugs, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t think about drinking… a LOT during the week.  Not in any sort of ‘I wanna party’ way, but every time I opened the fridge I saw a 4-pack of those amazing girly-grape flavored vodka drinks I absolutely adore, and I melted.  2 of those would have made it alllllllll go away and probably let me sleep through the night.  People were practically begging me to post those thoughts last week but I thought it sounded pandering.  But it’s the truth.

- thank you again to The Friendship Inn, I had no idea the actual positive impact a free meal would give me.  I would have dropped out Friday if we hadn’t gone there for lunch.  That’s a fact.  Both times I went it was a great boost, but looking back at that dark week, I’ll forever remember my meal with Whitney and her ‘manfriend’ at The Friendship Inn.  It was the first time we ever really talked past small talk and for some reason I think that’s a pretty cool bond to have with a couple of friends.  ”Do I know Whitney Graves and her ‘manfriend?’  Well, let me tell you about the first time we all hung out…….we were eating soup at The Friendship Inn…”   I can’t wait to start telling people that story.

-I’m too tired to namedrop you all but I am really happy people like Allison (first name that popped up) and the rest of you truly care as much as you all do.  I can’t imagine how much work this was to organize and get started and there must have been so many moments of  ”is this going to work?  are we wasting our time?”   As I lay here roasting in my sickness, I am happy you asked me.  I’m happy I was a part of this.  Thank you and I owe two of you lunch at Schryer’s.  And I can’t wait because that meal, like every meal since Monday at midnight – means a whole lot more now than it did a week and a half ago.

THANK. YOU.