^ That's a very interesting paper, Jerry Atrick. I wonder, though about the relationship between the worldview Desjarlais describes and diagnosable mental illness. My first instinct was to ask, must one also be mentally ill, and not only homeless, to have the tactile, profoundly present-oriented way of relating to the world that the paper describes? But then I wonder if this is the wrong question. What I might instead want to ask is, which is the chicken and which is the egg? Does living one's life as a disjointed set of episodic struggles to survive (instead of a cohesive life story with a beginning, middle, and end) make one mentally ill, or vice versa?
I have a semi-perverse fascination with transience as a way of life, and what transients have to teach us about the human condition. I think there is a long forgotten or oft ignored wisdom among long time street people, and indeed among any people who have, and foresee, no need for a permanent home. For them, the transience of all human life, of all forms, was never any big secret, never something to paper over with tales of prophecy or collective historical narratives of glory. Transient people have no history. They have no need for history. Securing what they need to get by right here right now takes all of their inner resources, and colors every interaction they have with anyone or anything.
I think there was probably a time in prehistory when most or all human beings lived in an environment and cultivated a mindset of drifting and shifting expediencies similar to what street people have today. There is something atavistic about taking to the streets. It must be patently obvious to anyone who has ever fallen through the cracks of polite society and ended up a drifter that most of what we call "culture", that is, our ways to find places for ourselves in a larger story, is wholly a product of no one having to worry about any of their base survival needs. Rich cultures with rich, elaborate collective fantasies only arise among peoples where everyone has plenty.
I've known friends of friends who've decided to hit the road without any money, surviving on their wits and a bit of luck, to see how far across the country they could get. They made it coast to coast, but they said it completely changed the way they view the world and their place in it. It forced them to become incredibly present-oriented, and all their interactions with other people very purpose-driven. It sharpened all of their senses acutely, and helped them learn to savor every little good thing that came their way. They learned to take nothing for granted. They learned to see and appreciate things simply for what they were and were useful for, not what they symbolized or what ideals they stood for.
They recommended the experience to anyone.
