Night and Day
The past two evenings have been like just that. Bright and sunny and dark and cold.
Dark and Cold
Yesterday evening there were a couple of guys staying over at the house because they were going to go on the tea run in the morning that leaves from my house. The atmosphere in the house had been pretty good, albeit quiet, all day. Soon after we had finished eating dinner an infamous community member stoped by the house and I knew that it would be no good.
As I expected, it did not take long for him to launch into a harsh invective about a decision that I had made. This particular person has amazing anger issues and can turn on somebody in a second. As we sat on the couch, and he barked into my ear, I was thinking how outrageous the conversation we were actually having was. I was trying to be as concilliatory as possible but I started to lose my cool. Eventually he told me to piss off, to which I replied that it was my house and he needed to piss off. Or I may have been a little more blunt.
Well, mid-arguement, one of the guys who is a resident at our other house and was planning on staying over to do the tea run just got up and left. He told me that he couldn't handle the animosity and was leaving. Shortly afterwards, the inflamitory guy did "piss off" and the guy who had left ended up coming back to the house. But not without choice words of his own. I believe that a little more background is in order here...
Our house has gained a reputation for itself through a mix of misconceptions and the reality of the prevailing attitudes and personalities of a couple of the folks that live here. Despite my efforts to squelch (and substantiate in cases where ideas are true), the rumormill has painted a picture of what Anton Street is like and these notions echo throughout the Community. There are too many issues to discuss here, some of which are valid concerns, but the ill-feelings (many of which extend beyond just my Project) have been so destructive to this Community. I struggle often with what exactly to do with this and admitedlly have no good ideas.
Returning to the story now....the envioronment had already been heated up by the behavior of the stormy fella that had pissed off by this point. The return, and subsequent lashing out, of the guy who had left in the midst of the argument, escalated the situation further and set off cofrontation galore. I can imagine how bad it would have been if the first guy had stuck around. I may have been made into a Chris sandwich while steping into the middle of a fist fight.
I went to bed, eventually, adrenaline pumping, teeth a bit clenched and the ringing of shouting voices bouncing around in my head.
Bad night.
Bright and Sunny
Today, we had a "The Weakest Link" themed quiz night hosted at our house instead of the regular video night that we usually have at our drop-in center on Monday and Fridays. As is usual practice for Video Nights, we brought a bunch of guys back with us from the Street Cafe that we run on Monday evenings. It was so good. Save for a few stupid issues, the atmosphere was great and everyone had a really good time. I am so appreciative to one of the guys in my house for spending all afternoon cooking a buffet for the evening.
It was great to be able to have guys who are rough sleeping aound the house and show hospitality to them. The concept of hospitality is is one of the big ticket issues in the Community right now and we catch a lot of flack for it. Some of which may be deserved but the majority of which I think is unwarrented. Granted, pretty much everyone that came tonight were not stereotypical homeless guys that you would think about. Many of the guys are quite conversational, well-spoken, etc. etc. It does make it easier to have an event of that nature when everyone participating is able to more or less participate.
Good night.
I just thought it was amazing the difference that 24 hours can make. I think that there is an optimal size for small group interaction (probably no more than 15) but it is always better to have more people than less because it takes the pressure off of individuals to "be on". It also allows for more voices to be heard which is always good in my book. Much harder to adopt a ganging up mentality.
Well, now I am just philosophizin' Enough of that.
Dark and Cold
Yesterday evening there were a couple of guys staying over at the house because they were going to go on the tea run in the morning that leaves from my house. The atmosphere in the house had been pretty good, albeit quiet, all day. Soon after we had finished eating dinner an infamous community member stoped by the house and I knew that it would be no good.
As I expected, it did not take long for him to launch into a harsh invective about a decision that I had made. This particular person has amazing anger issues and can turn on somebody in a second. As we sat on the couch, and he barked into my ear, I was thinking how outrageous the conversation we were actually having was. I was trying to be as concilliatory as possible but I started to lose my cool. Eventually he told me to piss off, to which I replied that it was my house and he needed to piss off. Or I may have been a little more blunt.
Well, mid-arguement, one of the guys who is a resident at our other house and was planning on staying over to do the tea run just got up and left. He told me that he couldn't handle the animosity and was leaving. Shortly afterwards, the inflamitory guy did "piss off" and the guy who had left ended up coming back to the house. But not without choice words of his own. I believe that a little more background is in order here...
Our house has gained a reputation for itself through a mix of misconceptions and the reality of the prevailing attitudes and personalities of a couple of the folks that live here. Despite my efforts to squelch (and substantiate in cases where ideas are true), the rumormill has painted a picture of what Anton Street is like and these notions echo throughout the Community. There are too many issues to discuss here, some of which are valid concerns, but the ill-feelings (many of which extend beyond just my Project) have been so destructive to this Community. I struggle often with what exactly to do with this and admitedlly have no good ideas.
Returning to the story now....the envioronment had already been heated up by the behavior of the stormy fella that had pissed off by this point. The return, and subsequent lashing out, of the guy who had left in the midst of the argument, escalated the situation further and set off cofrontation galore. I can imagine how bad it would have been if the first guy had stuck around. I may have been made into a Chris sandwich while steping into the middle of a fist fight.
I went to bed, eventually, adrenaline pumping, teeth a bit clenched and the ringing of shouting voices bouncing around in my head.
Bad night.
Bright and Sunny
Today, we had a "The Weakest Link" themed quiz night hosted at our house instead of the regular video night that we usually have at our drop-in center on Monday and Fridays. As is usual practice for Video Nights, we brought a bunch of guys back with us from the Street Cafe that we run on Monday evenings. It was so good. Save for a few stupid issues, the atmosphere was great and everyone had a really good time. I am so appreciative to one of the guys in my house for spending all afternoon cooking a buffet for the evening.
It was great to be able to have guys who are rough sleeping aound the house and show hospitality to them. The concept of hospitality is is one of the big ticket issues in the Community right now and we catch a lot of flack for it. Some of which may be deserved but the majority of which I think is unwarrented. Granted, pretty much everyone that came tonight were not stereotypical homeless guys that you would think about. Many of the guys are quite conversational, well-spoken, etc. etc. It does make it easier to have an event of that nature when everyone participating is able to more or less participate.
Good night.
I just thought it was amazing the difference that 24 hours can make. I think that there is an optimal size for small group interaction (probably no more than 15) but it is always better to have more people than less because it takes the pressure off of individuals to "be on". It also allows for more voices to be heard which is always good in my book. Much harder to adopt a ganging up mentality.
Well, now I am just philosophizin' Enough of that.
posted by Chris | 6:35 PM
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