a life update…
Posted by jodietonita on July 30, 2008
I am heading up to Cortes Island for the month of August. I will be working from Hollyhock for most of that and briefly leaving the island to attend the Big Time Out. Lucky me!
Words cannot express how relieved I am to be leaving the Downtown Eastside for a few weeks. Both my sensitivity to the chaos and the nature of the craziness has me thrown. The new 24-hour convenience store nearby (there are at least 10 of them in the surrounding 5 blocks) is dealing which greatly shifts the demographic, the nature of the conversations that happen at all hours, and the debris. The subsistence sex trade is thriving (I encountered a naked john a few days back), condoms are prolific, and the traffic is crazy. I can’t wait to be far away from the constant sirens, tire screeches, the screaming, and the pain.
I am conscious that most of the people living down here do not have the luxury of picking up and leaving when they have had enough. This is all there is.
For some, for many, they will die here.
Blessings on their souls.
This is what happens when as society we disregard “some” human life and distance ourselves from our shared humanity. A shout out to the wise and compassionate beings at Pivot Legal Society, Insite, the Portland Hotel Society, Carnegie Centre, Atira Women’s Resource Society and all of the sisters and brothers creating love and reducing harm down here. It is time to spark justice and restore our collective dignity.
May all beings be free from suffering.
Namaste.
Photo by Blackbird
