A BIG DIFFERENCE (HOME-LESS #3)

I get that "God wants you to know" post on Facebook. Some days I look it and and just say, "meh." But then I get a post like this: "Today, Valerie, we believe God wants you to know that 'your home is sacred.' Where you live makes a big difference. Every little thing in your home influences you through its colors, shapes, textures, smells. Take a look around your home,--what can you change to transform your home into a place of communion."

I stay with a friend (or with friends and family, depending on what part of the country I need to be in). But I am consciously aware that I am homeless. I have not been able to change my driver's license, my car insurance, my health insurance, my credit cards, or the like, to a new address because I don't "live" anywhere. This statement irritates the hell out of my friend and my family and friends. "I don't know why it matters," my friends says. It matters because: I have jury duty in a city I don't live in (but where I own a home) because I haven't yet changed any legal documents that say I live in a physical place--and post office boxes do not count. In fact, you cannot get a PO Box without proof that you have a physical address in the city where you want the box. It matters because I cannot register for the ACA medical exchange because I don't live in the state where I stay and I can't return to see the doctors where my house is (the one rented to someone else and where the government is SURE I don't live because of it). I can make any space "sacred." What I can't do is make any space, "home."

© Valerie Bridgeman

October 27, 2013