Jim is homeless. He would rather have a home he says, but he won’t have one on someone else’s terms if it turns him into something he doesn’t want to be.
He’s bright and I think he has an interesting life for all it hardships. Winters here in Scotland must be terribly cruel.
I took the first photo with the Fuji, and the next two images are crops from the full frame. I took the last photo with my phone.
12 replies on “Jim”
Intriguing. To be homeless by choice baffles me. The comfort of my own home has always been very important to me, and one of my greatest fears is to lose it.
Winters are harsh here too, and as the temperatures dip, the churches and shelters increase their capacitiy.
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I guess he got used to it to the point where being homeless feels like home.
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Yes. Trying to understand _people_ is next to impossible.
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The first time I was in Delhi – in a poor neighbourhood late at night – there were hundreds of men sleeping on the pavement – day workers and they cannot afford a bed for the night. They slept where they lay – no belongings, no bundles of anything – just sleeping where they lay.
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Maybe they are freer than we are.
My boss travelled all over the world, but I’d never seen or heard him as shocked as after he’d been to Calcutta.
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Yes, we are living in paradise in the West.
But you are right – about Jim – some people have no choice, but Jim could accept somewhere to live. He is intelligent and quick – and I think he would rather have his independence than be boxed into a life he does not want.
I may be romanticising his life. He has his problems – I have my problems – Maybe I would like to divest myself of some of mine 🙂
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There have been times when I’ve felt as if all these possessions just weigh me down — mostly when I’ve moved house 🙂
Most often we associate homelessness with drug addiction here in the Western world, but that’s not always the case … There’s a number of reasons why you’d be put on the street in the US, for example.
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I agree – there is freedom in being free of possessions – I think the ‘problem’ with housing is not so much that it is a big chunk of ‘stuff’ as that it costs a lot. If it were £10/$10 to buy roof over one’s head it would be less of a burden, don’t you think?
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Oh boy, would it ever!!!
The over heated housing market in big cities has also created such a gap between people.
Had I not moved here, I would have liked to live in Stockholm, which is impossible unless you’re a multi millionaire. Imagine Manhattan …
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And the situation in the UK is terrible because of population density. It’s impossible to imagine how the situation could be untangled because so much of the asset value of banks is tied to the value of people’s properties. Here is part of the situation that I described a while ago http://www.nomorepencils.com/sink-or-swim-the-housing-divide-in-the-uk/
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I just read it. That’s an … ‘interesting’ situation, to say the least.
During the eleven years I’ve been away, lots of things have changed in Sweden, and for eight years they had a different government [conservative] than when I left. The housing situation in Stockholm haven’t changed, that’s for sure. 3 million Sw. Crowns for a one room of 27 square metres.
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SEK 3,000,000 / 13.5 = £220,000 = that’s cheap for London!
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