Day 23 Pick any cause

 10/23/23 8:00 AM

 Day 23

Pick any cause that is of great importance to you (stray animals, lack of access to clean drinking water, refugees trying to escape war, etc.). Write a song from a humanitarian perspective about the people that are affected and things that can be done/changed to improve the situation.

 

But first this...

 

I dreamed Greg and my Mom were living at my house (or I at theirs, technically, since it was theirs in title and deed). As they were the actual owners, I had very little say in major decisions about the running of the place. 

Nevertheless, I was more than a little miffed when Greg made the unilateral decision to invite some homeless ex-cons to stay on the property in a temporary shelter, which had been trucked in for the occasion. 

"Just put it anywhere," Greg said to the transport company driver.

The crew unloaded the unsightly, boxlike structure on the lawn right in front of our house. It was basically a wooden rectangle, sloppily constructed, siding stained unevenly, and held together with baling wire. It was up on stilts, so it sat at the same level as the house.

"But this is going to completely block the view," I objected.

Greg was unfazed, and he went on with his welcoming of the guests, who were beginning to look less and less "temporary." 

I don't know if it was the fact that they wore motorcycle jackets and looked like a gang of hooligans, or their less than grateful attitude towards Greg's overly accommodating gesture of goodwill, but I didn't much like the arrangement.

I didn't have to ask the question: "Will they be coming in the house?" They were already in the living room, staking out places to sit down and drink beer. I shook my head in disgust and walked around the structure muttering and grumbling loudly. This caught the attention of my mom, who then told Greg, who, in turn, began to chastise me:

"You don't have any say in this, and we'd appreciate it if you'd keep your dissatisfaction to yourself. Give it a rest, or you are going to find yourself living in that thing, and they'll be inside, in your room."

I fumed and went to pout in a newly constructed, unfinished, warehouse-sized detached garage, but not without a final word of protest.

"FUCK THIS!," I bellowed and stomped off to sit by myself, although still within earshot of my mom and Greg's critical comments.

"I sometimes think he's bipolar," my mom told Greg, her voice intentionally loud enough for me to hear.

That made me even more angry, and I withdrew further into the giant, garage-like structure, out of sight and hearing distance. I was going to sit there until hell froze over or until that ugly box was moved from its current location. 

After a few minutes of this, when it became clear that the former strategy would probably not result in any satisfactory outcome, other than hell perhaps actually freezing over, I emerged from hiding. I changed my tack and tried a more reasoned approach.

"You know," I said, "they can always move this thing to the back or side somewhere. That's why they call them 'mobile' homes."

Greg still acted like he didn't hear me, and he went on conversing with my mom about my behavior, with me standing right there. Undeterred, I kept up what I felt was a logical argument for moving the structure.

"It's no problem, really. The transport company can easily pick it up and move it wherever they want. They can lift it with a their giant forklift and plop it down somewhere out of the way."

"Yeah, OK. Maybe later," Greg said dismissing any urgency.

 I woke up at this point, got dressed, and went to feed the cats.

 ----

I'm on day 23 of my challenge, but my dream logging is more time-sensitive, since details are sparse and fading by the moment, being replaced by spurious commentary and fabricated dialogue. I will return to my challenge, perhaps later in the day or week, depending.

Perhaps homelessness is the cause I ought to be writing about, considering the auspicious timing of this dream. I think this dream was a rebuke, intended to highlight my own shallow, hypocritical judgment of others and my seeming indifference to the plight of homeless people. It's easy to be hard when it's your front yard.

Rubber, Road. Road, Rubber. Now that we've made our introductions, let's get to work!