And That Has Made All The Difference

I pretended to be homeless for a while in college. Rather than throw a few thousand dollars at a lease in Isla Vista, I bought and lived in a Volkswagen bus. Even though I technically did not have a residence I always had a place to go. I worked in a kitchen so didn't worry about food; I showered in a gym or in dorms. And even though they were probably just being polite, anytime someone said, "Dude, you can totally crash at our place," I did. It seemed to give me a sort of lefty street cred and lots of sympathy with girls. So I wasn't really homeless, I was more of a Bohemian bon vivant sleeping in a van.

But even though I was pretending, it was still a bit more of a living by the seat of my pants lifestyle than say... well I don't know... something else. In any case it makes me think I'm a little soft now. But even in being soft, I wonder if I may be more "streety" than not. I went back to my college town to get together with a friend. We try to get together about once a year and that is where we do it. So there I was, waiting. While I waited, sitting in front of the museum watching people, I wondered where I fit in the spectrum of Western humanity that has at one end the unshaved guy sitting 10 feet from me wearing multiple layers of clothing, holding a stack of books bound by a rubber band, muttering to himself about the variations in atomic vibration and at the other end the guy walking purposefully past me in his pressed pants, starched pastel shirt, and contrasting solid color tie, muttering to someone else, "... we don't need to republish all the copy because it comes from... "

And while I was sitting and thinking, I was interrupted...

Someone Else: Are you training to be an ordained minister?
Skybalon: No I don't have any plans to be ordained.
Someone Else: What do you do?
Skybalon: I'm a student -I study philosophy of religion and theology
Someone Else: Really? I'm Hindi studies?
Skybalon: Really?
Someone Else: No not really. So you go to UCSB.
Skybalon: Not anymore-
Someone Else- Tell me the truth, let me tell you, why philosophy- it is so inaccessible, who is it for? Tell me, what do we have, with the history of philosophers, with all they've written, where are we, who do you have in mind?
Skybalon: Do you mean- if we were to walk up to somebody here and hand them some Wittgenstein, what would he mean to them?
Someone Else: I'm coming from Princeton- We want you to read this and find meaning- but you know at the heart of American Fundamentalism- Modern Anti-semitism is the child of American Fundamentalism and that is a product of Princeton-
Skybalon: Ha Anti-semitism is the 6th point.
Someone Else: It is, and there is too much religion in America and it's this religion that is controlling so many people.

...After Some Time...

Someone Else: You have to understand that this isn't about you. We might come to you and say you're needed in the State Department. You might always be a Quaker but you have to choose. You need to know that the State Department is where you should be.
Skybalon: ...
Someone Else: I'm not fucking around... It was nice to meet you.