facebooking with the homeless

being homeless is no joke. and it can happen to any of us. i know. about a month ago, it nearly happened to me. i had often wondered about the people i see begging on the streets of the bay area...wondering how did they get there in the first place. where were their families and friends? then i came close to discovering it firsthand; and that not knowing where you are going to live, well, it's a terrifying state of mind to be in. and when you reach that point, you realize you truly are alone in the world. all it takes is a bad break or two to send you there. 

like any metropolis, the homeless community is quite large in this area. upon observation, i have discovered some interesting things about the culture. i have seen men come to blows over what they claimed was their territory - the sidewalk in front of the post office for instance. i have seen one man offering to share his sandwich with another man passing by - he happily accepted it, took a bite, handed it back, and thanked him as he walked on. but the most fascinating thing to me is observing their time spent in the public library. the public library is a gathering place for the homeless public. i came upon this discovery when i moved and had to wait weeks for the quick response of the local phone company to re-connect me. well, we all have experienced the rapid actions of the phone monopoly when it comes to getting service and getting it right, so i don't think i need to elaborate here BUT...and it's a BIG BUT...after speaking to eight - yes, eight - phone employees in one single morning, and getting nowhere slow, i decided to hop on a PC at my local library (heavily armed with my alcohol wipes). 

it was on my first visit that i discovered that the homeless are on social media. yes, boys and girls, they are on facebook! one guy just looks over at the guy next to him and sees that he is also on facebook, so he says "want to be my facebook friend?" and that's how it's done. simple and to the point. i was totally amazed. as i continued with my fascination and eavesdropping, i realized that they had a serious social network going on...they were all making plans - sitting across from one another while on facebook - to get together for coffee or hanging out at the park later...truly amazing. even the mental guys talking to themselves or possibly the computer were making plans on facebook. wonder if any of them used the "events" option for this planning that was going on...hmm. i was just hoping that after a few daily trips to the library, they would not start to think of me as one of them, and start to include me in their social activities. but i started to think that the fact that i showered daily was a dead give away that i traveled in a different circle. the pungent odors that hovered around me burned my eyes as i once again cursed the damn phone monopoly.