Postmodern Pastoral

 My supervisor came on my bus to warn me about the homeless and all the problems they cause, such as open containers and smoking weed. He told a little story of how a homeless man once had a crockpot and was making food in the transit center. He thought this would shock and upset me. I pushed back and said "homeless people have to eat"  "But the problem is the homeless in this town want to be homeless!" I replied "So? Does that mean they shouldn't eat?" He backed down a little and said "yeah they don't bother me too much but it's not the image Park City wants"  I didn't know what to say to that. A few hours after thought of a lot of things I should have said but didn't think of them quick enough. So I just said again "everyone has to eat everyday." Probably not the best thing to say but I needed to communicate the fact that I was mad. I get upset when people that he trash-talk the homeless. He could not handle the id...

  Picking up a tarantula and putting it on my face and all the girls would scream. When a kid asked me what it was like coming out of the closet. Sleeping in a soaking wet sleeping bag for 12 nights in a row. #monsoonseason When one kid told me "it's so weird to be happy and sober at the same time" Throwing rocks in the ice to watch it break. Hike strikes. A mouse crawled on my face when I was trying to sleep. Ew. Kids cussing out their parents to me and then me not passing along that information to the parents. Putting a large flat rock over coals to keep them slowly smouldering so we could start the fire again in the morning. In a rowdy boys band, and most the boys were asleep, one boy asked me to sing a few more lullabies. Hiking in the rain in winter, and all of us showed the first few signs of hypothermia, another band had to come bring us dry wood so we could get warm.  Sitting on top of a boulder on top of a butte overlooking the Gila river.  One kid telling me the...

Do you ever dream of throwing everything away, jumping in your car, and just driving on some unknown highway? No roots or obligations. No place in particular to go and nobody knows where you are. People often ask me where I live and I say "the desert."  And then they ask "no, but like where?" And I just say "✨the desert✨" I can't be anymore specific than that really.  I haven't paid rent in 2 years. Although I've gotten a lot of Airbnbs so maybe that counts as rent and I have a storage unit in South Tucson. I don't sleep in my car all that often, probably just 5 times last year. I had a temp job in Alaska for the summer and that's not a desert. I go camping a lot. And I'm an extrovert and I meet new people and make friends easily. Lots of people have opened up their homes, couches and beds to me. There's so many kind and giving people in this world. I eat a lot of fast food, which really sucks, and it takes a lot of money too. S...