Silly penances.
Husbands in trouble used to do them…
Kind of. Remember when married men used to get kicked out of bed by their wives when the Mrs. was mad at them? Maybe it was just a sitcom thing - but if real - it could have been a good penance.
No one kicked me out of bed.
I sometimes do silly penances. Last night I decided to sit outside in the rain storm, without protection, to see what it would be like if I were homeless and had no shelter. I realized only a fool would sit out in the rain without protection, and recalled how more fortunate homeless people sometimes sleep in their cars - while they still have them. So I locked up the house and took the car out and found a nice place to sleep.
I know!
The nearby street lamp shone in my face, so I moved the car to a darker street. I folded back the passenger’s seat as far as it would go, and made a pillow out of a winter hat and scarf. After praying for awhile, I tried to go to sleep - I have a Honda Civic and I’m a big guy - so it was not very comfortable. The rain intensified accompanied by fabulous lightning all around, but I just couldn’t get comfortable. Around midnight I went back home and slept in my bed. I’ll never be a good homeless person.
Summer camp.
I know it is a weird thing to do, but on occasion I’ll deliberately inconvenience myself in order to understand what it feels like to have nothing left, not even your dignity. So I did an “urban camp-out” last night, despite the fact the experience was not authentic - because I really do have a place to live - and I also had my identification in my pocket if the police stopped by.
“Oh yes - we love living in our car - it is so convenient.” - Imaginative response from a potential game show contestant.
Although I never persevere through a night - winter nights are the worst - I always understand that homeless people do not choose to be homeless and enjoy sleeping in a cardboard box or their car - or the gutter. Some crazy ones say they ‘like the independence’, and many of us only remember those who make such hollow claims and repeat with conviction: “They say they want to live on the street - they would prefer that over a shelter.” Or, ”Many homeless choose to live on the street - they like it.” (Poor people, even those with mental disorders, often say such things in order to salvage their dignity.)
“It’s the economy stupid!” - Tagline from an election several terms back.
So what is more strange? Sleeping in one’s car for a penance in a lame attempt to understand - perhaps even share a little experience with the homeless, or claiming the homeless like their homeless poverty - and “especially in summer - it isn’t bad at all when it is nice out.”?
Coming to a neighborhood near you.
Please don’t forget the poor and the homeless and the shelters and charities who care for them just because it is nice out… Especially since many more people are losing their homes now days in this harsh economy.
St. Joseph, who always found lodging for Mary and Jesus, help the poor and the homeless, and those of us who have nowhere to lay our head, and who are alone and afflicted.
August 28th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
“I realized only a fool would sit out in the rain without protection, and recalled how more fortunate homeless people sometimes sleep in their cars - while they still have them. So I locked up the house and took the car out and found a nice place to sleep.”
There’s nothing wrong with being “a fool.”
Motivation, buddy.
Pax.
August 28th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Your penances are not silly at all. It’s because of people like you, who have made penances in seemly silly ways that has helped my learning disabled teen in ways that I don’t even fully appreciate or understand yet.
Oh,and I want to thank each and every soul that has done something sacrificial for my dear child. Especially the sacrifices that were done in secret.
Secondly, I have slept in my van, many times willingly, for fun, and like you say if the temps are right then it wasn’t much of a penance.
If I (we) can live for 9 days in a van then that tells me that we have WAY TO MUCH STUFF back home!! You really only need a few changes of clothes, and some food, water, baby wipes , a porti potty ,and some viewmaster reels.
I must always take earplugs, for the crappy songs that my husband listens to, and an eyecover because campsites always have those mercury lights to keep you awake. I felt so free ,and unplugged from the world in my van.
We take our children for our penance, we never abuse them ,but they sure abuse us.
When I feel especially unappreciated. I threaten to take the van ,and leave, oh I would come back after a little while. I just wanna know if Lake Louise looks just like the viewmaster reel.
(I love our disabled population, we really can’t do enough penance for them , or for the little ones in the childrens hospitals across our nation.)
Oh,and the rain thing ,it’s a thrill to lay out in the rain when the temp is perfect, but I have so many medals around my neck that I am terrified of being electrocuted ,and with my confession list still in my pocket that would be like playing with fire.
God bless you. Mr.Terry.
August 28th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Aw, my dear husband is staying at the hospital in India where his 97 year old father is in ICU after a major stroke. He stays every night there, and on a number of occasions he slept in his car. Your post makes me realize even more how much he is quietly, heroicly, suffering. Please pray for him and his dad and mom and the whole family.
~Gette
August 28th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Teryy:
You are delightful! Keep up the “silly” penances
August 28th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
once I suggested, in jest, that instead of praying the stations of the cross during Lent inside the warm carpeted church, we should use the outside stations on the gravel road…. barefoot and kneeling in the rocks so we could better experience the suffering of Calvary.
It was a rib about how we all stuff ourselves on fried fish then turn pious and pray the stations.
Sadly, no one gets me. I bet you & I, Terry, would be fast friends.
August 28th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Kat - we’d be great - and we could torment Thom for the rest of his life! (Out of charity of course.) LOL!
August 28th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
I get quite a bit of exposure to homeless people through my job, and no, they don’t want to be homeless. We always treat them with respect; in turn they watch our backs when we are called down to their neck of the woods for a man down.
August 29th, 2008 at 5:27 am
Kat, My husband would very much agree with you. Every Lent he complains ,on the way home from the church fish fry that people are eating too much ,and that they are missing the point of Lent. He gets frustrated about it.
August 29th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Georgette, prayers offered for your husband and his dad, and the rest of the family; I know how difficult it must be.