Californization

It never occured to me the effects that living in California would produce in my children. A couple of weeks ago I asked the kids to paint a tree for art, the way an artist sees a tree. Jasmine painted a black tree with red apples on it that was pretty typical otherwise- it had a puffly, cloudy top and a chunky bark. Tre, however, painted a palm tree. His had apples in it too. I thought it was so adorable I couldn't wait to take it to conferences and share how he sees the world differently now that we are Californians.

I was not as excited when I saw this sign. Jasmine came in and asked me how to spell homeless the day she made this sign. I asked her why she was making it and she said, "I want to see if I can get some money."

On a weekly basis we pass a surfer-looking kid in his twenties standing on the corner outside of Wal-Mart holding a sign asking for some kind of help. Some of the same kids frequent the corner; some of the others looking for help stand on busy intersections and on ramps to the highway. Most of these guys are in grubby t-shirts and carry worn backpacks, occassionally we'll see some with clean clothes on and expensive bicycles. When Dale's parents were here we came upon a couple with nasty natural dreadlocks and two beautiful dogs. They obviously "lived off the land" (and the hard-working citizens that cultivate the land and all of it's bounty) who had just purchased a huge bag of Iams dog food and were camped out in front of a drug store feeding their dogs, who were retained on expensive harnesses. We all looked on in awe. They weren't asking for anything from us, but the insinuations in our minds did not calculate well. Along side of them were a few others in dirty clothes that were asking for handouts. It was unsettling.

As Jasmine scrawled the letters to make this sign, I didn't hesitate to inform her that most of those people are liars; they are not homeless, and they do that because they are lazy and can make more money begging than doing honest work. It's an important lesson for them, but I'm not sure she's hearing the right part of it.

If you ever see her holding this sign on the corner of your block, please return her to us. She's not really homeless.