Good People - Hard Times

Tuesday, December 2, 2008 at 7:02PM

Message: Hello, I happened on your web page through a link you placed in a response to an article in the Florence Times newspaper. I share some experience and beliefs with you. I believe that we are all indeed part of God as God is and that indeed we are the way that the universe is able to be aware of it's own existance. I too have had some really quirky ups and downs and my travels have carried me coast to coast and to 3 continents. I have been everything from an RV park survivor to a fairly successful businessman and back again. I have seen barefoot folks in one room shantys in the Carribean and South America that had much more love in their hearts than our contemporaries here in the US. I have been blessed to have a little bit to give from time to time and looking back on it being able to give a pair of good jeans to a Jamaican or a pair of boots to a barefoot person in Paraguay are two of the best highpoints in my life. Another experience I had that meant a lot to me was giving a bottle of wine to an alcoholic in Nashville after holding him hostage in a Waffle House in downtown. I told him he had to eat and listen to me talk a bit before I paid for it and he took me up on that. I told him that even if he had no desire at all to quit drinking that the AA meeting was just around the corner and that at least it was a warm place to sit and that there were people there that would help him survive the cold of winter to live and fight out another year. I was at one of my low ebbs at the time and not long after that my life improved considerably. I have always wondered what happened to these folks and others like them I met in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast. I am now right at 50 years old. I'm lucky at the moment that I have a friend that I helped years ago that is one of the few that bothers to remember a good turn done as he enables me to keep my RV here and draw my unemployment during this, yet again another hard time in my life. The thing I find impressive about your website is the respect you are paying to folks that are down and out and I totally agree with you when you point out that their situations do indeed keep them from getting enough better to get better. I have fear in my heart that as I grow older and less desireable as an employee due to age that I may loose my lucky charm that has seen me through some of the harder times of my life. I'm thankful that I did a couple of tours in the Army and that I can be stoic in the face of it all most of the time. At any rate I wanted you to know that there are indeed others of us out here that can see something of value in someone that is down on their luck or addicted or whatever it is that has them in a pinch where the die hard capitolists have no further use for them. I think from looking at your website and reading your words that you are one of a rare breed of us that doesn't have to gain in money to gain in valuable insight or find value in your fellow man. I hope beyond all hope that after the holiday season is past that I can find a job that will allow me to again earn my living while doing a needed service for just such folks as you pointed out or helping people with mental health or similar issues. Kudos on posting it up there and if ya have the time drop me an email back as I think I would certainly enjoy a chance to chat with a like minded person. Again thanks for making the effort to show you care. Have a good holiday season. Frank