The Life In Decatur

Everyone I meet does something else.  We live in a country where you have to work and do what you love on the side, in large part.  Most people have to explore their loves in life on the weekend or at night.  Strangely, there are a large number of teachers in the mix, but...well. So we came up with the Side Hustle Market.  We wanted to keep up with our mission of helping people become who they want to be. The Side Hustle Market is a market for artists and makers in the area to show of what they do on the side.  These are the things they make late at night while watching TV or what they look forward to doing on the weekend. The key is to make it affordable for them to participate.  First, we are talking low table fees and lunch included on the day of the event. We wanted to go a little further still.  What if we not just value our vendors, but invest in our vendors also?  Are there things that we can do as a group that would increase buying...

I was in the Army a grand total of two years and seventeen weeks.  I had the luxury of having an older brother who was already in the Army on recruiting duty and told me the exact things to ask for because, he told me, the recruiter would not volunteer that information.  I got in.  I got out. Training was intense, but aside from the Oklahoma City Bombing on April 19, 1995, there was never any thought that I would be going anywhere further than Ft. Carson, Colorado. That morning for about an hour, we thought the world was coming to get us; that we were under attack and I was ready to go.  That was as close to combat as I ever got. My father was in the Navy, two of my brothers and one of my sisters went into the Navy also.  My oldest brother and I chose the Army.  So did his son and daughter. Spouses, nieces, nephews, cousins...suffice it to say, I come from a big military family. When people say, "Thank you for your service." it makes me ponder what ...

It has been a while since I have done and there have been some changes, but there are still certain truths and inevitable realities to this world.  The thing you need is somewhere it just depends on what you are willing to do to get it.  Tonight I am going dumpster diving. I remember a decade ago when I did this the first time.  There was a young man who was trying to give me advice because it was obvious I was new.  He was a wealth of information and told me lots of things I will never forget and that I wish I had never heard.  Food is the key for many and he was telling me where I could get it.  He was telling me about local shelters and when they "feed".  I tend to lock on to certain words and the way they are said. The way he said "feed" was so animal-like. "This place feeds at 5 p.m." "You get good feed at such and such a place" He even told me about a local pastor who would trade oral sex for a place to sleep and some food. In any ...

People have asked the same question, or some derivation of it, of me several times in the last 48 hours "do you get to bathe?" yada yada yada, hygiene... Last night, there were storms that rocked the area.  When I was a kid, I would watch the flashes and I was told that if you counted the seconds between the flash and sound of thunder, you could tell how far away the storm was, some convoluted childish logic about each second being a mile.  Last night, there was no time to count and not only could I hear the thunder immediately, I feel my skin perk up and the rumble of the earth beneath my feet telling me that it was close. It was very close. Not miles away, but yards...feet. I found cover beneath an awning and bundled up against the wind and rain.  The last thing on my mind was body odor. I woke this morning, hungry, not thinking about smell. A lot of homelessness from my observation, is about dignity and little ways of maintaining it when you are out and about....

I will be living on the streets of Decatur, homeless for the next 30 days, taking an in-depth look at homelessness in this area, and revisiting places nearly a decade after having done this before. I spend a great deal of my time eavesdropping and observing while being out here.  I am working on a major composting initiative and as part of that, I spend about 60 percent of my day, starting at 5 in the morning, on my bike, visiting homes and different neighborhoods in the area.  ( See: Don't quit your day job here ).  In between long rides to different destinations, I stop to charge up my phone, my tablet and check in. I keep up with social media, the things that are being said to and about me.  It has been interesting to say the least.  It is a vast change between now and the way things were a decade ago.  Facebook is what started this whole thing back then, but it was not as big of a deal then.  People at least in my circle, were not on it constan...

The Little Ease was the name a prison cell in the Tower of London.  It was called the Little Ease because it was designed to be a small and solitary room without windows in which the prisoner could not get comfortable.  The room was so small that an average person could not stand up, lie down, stretch, or anything else. The idea of this room came to me the first time I did this, but it did not stick with me past the first shower when I got back.  The problem is what one has to think about and never quite being comfortable without a home. The rain came down in fits and starts two nights ago.  Before taking this on, I had splurged on a new sleeping bag rated to be warm in 0 degrees and waterproof.  There would be no setting up a tent so I thought this might be the best option for sleeping out.  Then came the rain. The night was warm, which meant sleeping with the bag only slightly open.  Then came the rain.  Waterproof sleeping bags are great ...

I will be living on the streets of Decatur, homeless for the next 30 days, taking an in-depth look at homelessness in this area, and revisiting places nearly a decade after having done this before. Day 1 I wonder how many people have been in this position...for real. This was always the moment I had wondered about, right here, right now.  This moment; the moment where one steps out the door for the last time, not knowing whether they will ever walk back into a door of their own.  I always wonder about the soft click of the lock, and what that means. I am coming back to it in 30 days.  No amount of role playing (which is essentially what this project is; role playing) can prepare you for that feeling; not knowing.  No matter what, I know that I have my keys right in my pocket. Last night I closed the door and walked to the MARTA station with just about everything in a bag and the warm(-ish) air was inviting.  There was a hint of spring. How do you start be...

I will be living on the streets of Decatur, homeless for the next 30 days, taking an in-depth look at homelessness in this area, and revisiting places nearly a decade after having done this before. When I decided to come to this community, I wanted to see what was here in Decatur and what was missing; how to grow in this place.  It's a lot of work getting to know a place, however small and cozy.  There are new streets to learn and people to meet. I have decided to up the ante. While it is difficult to be homeless, there is actual work to be done.  When we look at how the average day is spent when you are on the street, the work is primarily logistical in the beginning.  Sleeping is one thing, but where do you go when the sun is up and you can no longer hide in corners? For many, it is part of a routine.  Once you get used to it, there is a pattern to packing up, a place to hide what you cannot carry with you, an awareness of where you can go and when. Fo...

Almost a decade ago, I packed up some clothes, my tent, a cold weather sleeping bag and stepped out of my condo in Chamblee, GA into the cold.  A week before, I had been shopping at REI and got all sorts of things that I would need for my trip.  I bought a new MP3 player and headphones.  It was the end of October, so I bought some long johns.  I didn't need too much else.  I am an avid camper and hiker and 30 days outside was not much of a push.  I locked the door, slid my keys into my pocket, and went to the MARTA station. I wasn't going hiking or camping though.  The idea that this was simply another camping trip was the first thing I had to get out of my head.  I wasn't going to the woods.  I was going to Little Five Points.  Little Five Points, or L5P was a little neighborhood close to the center of Atlanta.  Then, it was the center of the Bohemian South.  It was exotic and weird and there were people there playing music ...

If I had a nickel every time I needed a glue gun!  Well, I would probably have about 55 cents but that has always given me something to think about. As we are looking at things that we need in the community, we are also looking at the things we need in our homes and what can be shared.  This is not a different or unusual model than what we see in other, more tribal-minded countries, or even back in the day to when people were more apt to borrow a cup of sugar or an egg, because it just didn't make sense to go and buy a pound of sugar just then or a dozen eggs. The same should apply to the present world and other things other than food.   We have a lot more that needs to be done on a daily basis and better technology to manage it for more families.  It is all pretty simple, someone near you has the thing you need. More importantly than just convenience, there are people in our current community in need and the fixes are relatively simple for an active communi...

Coming to a new community can be difficult, and this is coming from someone who has moved around a lot.  Sometimes, though, you just find a good place to grow; the kind of place where everything you need is close if not in reach. Welcome to Decatur, a nest of little towns just outside of Atlanta.  Having lived so many places; so many big cities, it is easy to be instantaneously jaded.  I am very liberal, verging on bleeding heart liberal, and being in the south...well... The key to starting in any new place, growing in any new place is testing the soil and then developing a plan based on the results. I have long been a proponent of what I call Neo-Permaculture.  Permaculture itself relies on people acknowledging their environment and essentially adjusting themselves and the environment in retroactive ways.  Let's be honest, the best thing for the earth right now is to give up cars and return, as a whole back to nature.  Let's also be honest and realize ...