Happy Saturday, all!
I struggled this week. I wrote three or four pages on a topic that I thought would become a blog I could publish today or tomorrow, only to discover that I needed to hold off on posting it. Midway into the piece, I realized that my ideas hadn’t yet ripened and thus I’d be sharing something a mite inedible (perhaps even bitterly so) if I pushed the blog out too soon.
So, I went back to the drawing board…
I want to tell you about my commute yesterday as a way of introducing a project I would like to begin working on. On days when the traffic is especially bad, I do this tricky sort of maneuver that takes me down a back alley and across a parking lot as a way of circumnavigating a bit of road that is often terribly congested with exhaust-spewing vehicles. Yesterday was one of those days.
Here’s the thing: The aforementioned parking lot abuts up against a strip mall where homeless folks often sleep. Yesterday, as per usual, there were quite a few of them sacked out and getting the last of their forty winks before the loud world would rudely wake them up in the way only a loud and rude world can. Most of those asleep had shopping carts that were overflowing with their few worldly possessions.
Because this strip mall is fairly close to where I live and on a path I often walk, I have occasionally spoken with these folks, and I have been thinking I want to begin to spend a bit of time with them, just to talk. I’m certain they’ve got some amazing stories to tell. By the way, there was a period in my life when I was terribly poor and very alone, which means I could have easily ended up on the streets myself. It’s clear that there is very little that separates those of us who live “comfortable” lives from those who don’t. Many of us are only a series of bad luck events away from finding ourselves in similar straits. We are all humans, and we all live very difficult lives.
Now, if you don’t mind, I want to take a sharp turn and move very quickly toward a new (but perhaps related) topic.
About a week ago, I recorded a podcast (Wise & Shine’s first) with Cristiana who writes under the pseudonym of “crisbiecoach.” (This blog won’t include any spoiler alerts; in fact, I won’t even tell you what we spoke about; I will say, though, that those who’ve heard it have had good things to say.)
So be on the lookout for it. And please note that other episodes are in the works.
If you’ve got a good podcast idea, I’m inviting you to post it here. Maybe you’ve got special expertise that would make you an interesting person to interview. If so, let me know and we’ll talk about possibly putting something together.
Thanks for reading, and I look forward to checking out your comments.