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This semester three of my friends and I went to Austin to experience a
weekend of amazing music. In between the music we decided that instead of
spending money on a place to stay we would just let the city of Austin be our home and
lead us to a place of comfort (in other words be homeless). I loved hearing the comments about what
people thought about what we were doing and even after we did it what we had
done. Many said we were crazy...and for awhile i thought...maybe we were a
little....but i now have decided NO!!! You are crazy!!
Its 3 am and i am doing my missions homework and I want you to experience
a section of it with me.
Well here it is...you should prob read it...so you know why you are crazy
On entering an auditorium to listen to a musical
performance, he looks until he finds a chair-a platform on which to perch
himself. If all these platforms are occupied, he leaves because the auditorium
is "full." Obviously, there are a great many places on the
floor where he can sit, but this is not culturally acceptable, at least not at
the performance of a symphony orchestra.
At home Americans have different kinds of platforms for
sitting in the living room, at the dining table, at a desk and on the
lawn. They have large platforms on which they sleep at night. When
they travel abroad, their greatest fear is being caught at night without a platform
in a private room, so they make hotel reservations well ahead of time and pay
hundreds of dollars for a single nights sleep. People from many parts of
the world know that all one needs at night is a blanket to keep clean and warm,
and a flat space-and the world is full of flat places. At the airport, at
three in the morning, American travelers are draped uncomfortably over chairs
because they would rather be dignified than comfortable. Travelers from
other parts of the world sleep soundly stretched out on the floor.
Not only do Americans sit and sleep on platforms, they build
their houses on them, hang them on their walls, and put fences around them to
hold their children. Why this obsession with platforms? Behind all
these behavior patterns is a basic worldview assumption that floors are
dirty. This explains their obsession for getting off the floor, it also
explains why they keep their shoes on when they enter the house, and why the
mother scolds the child when it picks a potato chip off the floor and eats it,
even though the floor has just been washed.
In Japan
the people believe floors are clean. They take their shoes off at the
door, and sleep and sit on mats on the floor. When we walk into their
home with our shoes on, they feel much like we do when someone walks on our
couch with their shoes on.
Laura Young just texted me!! Hello Friend!! I think you are great.
Any who...Eff culture =) I spent the weekend sleeping in a park, the roof
of a city building, and even the streets of Austin...and to be honest i was never longing
for more. I had all i needed. I lived off peanut butter sandwiches
and when sleep was needed there was spaces all around calling my name to be
slept on. I say take advantage of what life puts in front of you.
If others think you are crazy...ha...they are the crazy ones...spending money
for a bed that 100s maybe thousands of other disgusting bodies have slept
in...and I slept on the nice park grass for free....probably the first to ever
take it up on its offer!
P.S. Sarah Hucks and I are leading the Kenya I/CD trip for a month this
summer!!!
 
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