The things I’m writing about in this post are simple things, so expected, so routine, and yet what so many think of as a “privilege!” Each one of us would cry out to the government(s), to the state, to our friends and neighbors if we were deprived just these simple “happenings” we do most everyday.

Now let’s get real–that is what this blog is all about. Should you read our website for the first time or if you have been following it from the start, I (Brian Masters) and my editor (Dr. Virginia Dwyer), have pointed out the reality of the Subculture. This blog has included real stories about the people, the hardships, education that can help, those that can help, and action items that can provide a step in the right direction. I thank everyday and the entity/energy with me and/or in me. So, I want to say thanks.

Thank you for:

• being able to take a hot shower, in privacy, and relieving the pain. Not having, anymore, to be in a shelter/house where I had to straddle my legs so not to walk in the urine and feces of others before me.
• having a place to dress by myself and not in a car where others can walk by, especially the police or an employer. Where dressing, two feet away is another man, watching me and others watching him.
• having a meal of my choice, hot or cold, in front of me. Made or bought by me. A meal of my choice. Just a meal in front of me.
• being able to get behind a wheel for an auto, so I can drive for food, drink, to help others, a job, and to see friends. That I am not walking on the streets of a town I had no idea existed 10 years before while carrying a backpack of 10 to 20 pounds while my legs and spine spike with pain at their whim.
• having the ability to speak and laugh again without fear that another in the shelters, houses, or illegal campground will take illogical offense and challenge me to a fight I can not win. To not fake the short sentences or no speech at all, in order to fit in and not stand out.
• the chance to breath fresh air and not that of a hospital or chorine used to clean the germs of 10 others.
• a shot in my life of the 11 Action Items that are a must that I have seen. These action items literally save others and put me in a better place.

Note: These thank you’s are fact not fiction. They are from not only my experience but from others I see when I volunteer to provide food, shelter, and pay bills for a society created to help those in need, like me two years ago.

It only takes a second to say Thank You when I look at my plate, my ride, my privacy to dress alone with the clothes I bought. Every day I think of my long-time friend laughing at me at the table of his friend and family, saying, “Are you praying?” Or getting out of the car and standing for just a second, as the spine and leg pain subside, and I can breath the air, all the while the passenger or friend saying, “Come on, hurry up, get your nose out of the sky.” These moments reinforce me every day. Fortunately, these people who laugh or hurry me have no clue what it’s like to go without food for days or eating raisins that only cost a dollar at the CVS. They have no clue what standing and smelling air after a rain is like while you grab the backpack that you once carried for those miles of pain; we who have pray that you or they never do.

The simple things. These are the simple things that I will remember every day for the rest of my life, and my bond with those who either say it themselves and/or are acting on the 11 Action Items that change a life. We can’t care if a friend laughs at us or people single us out; it is a Stigma that will never go away.  We have to adapt or die.

Just smile and be happy that you can.

Brian Masters

brianmasters919@gmail.com