You Had ONE Job!

This week has been a crash course in privilege. If you've been reading along, you will know the situation: I am staying at a cheap motel in Amarillo, working day labor work when I don't have contract work, and relearning a lot of what I have forgotten about privilege. If you haven't been reading along, I encourage you to read older articles. It's good stuff.

So, there are two day labor places in Amarillo. I registered at one and had work Tuesday, but this second one only interviews on Wednesdays. The morning time frame is 10:00AM. So I arrived in a bit early, and the lady said she had a medical appointment, and asked very nicely if I could come back.

Basically, I took a day off of work rather than head over to the other site and see if they had something, to be told that I need to come back later. On the ONE DAY they do interviews.

Fortunately that wasn't a problem for me. But it very well could be a problem for others who may have limited transportation, or need to spend that afternoon time looking for other work, or actually out making money. My take for yesterday just covered the cost of my motel room; if it was everything I had to depend on, I would be running in the negative and filling my pockets with the cheap pastries from the motel's breakfast.

So I'm at the McDonald's cribbing the free wifi again (It's a staple for me on the road these days) and eating a $3.00 breakfast. Not bad, I suppose, but it's hardly the cush life that Republicans accuse folks like me of living. I'm already looking forward to returning home and sleeping in my own bed; to be honest, I was looking forward to that by the end of the day Monday.

What I have determined this week, though, is that there is a vast disconnect from where I am and where many of these people are. The only way I can bridge that is to actually BE where they are, and I have pretty much decided to launch into full time activism and ministry. This isn't a whim; this is something I have long considered and have finally figured out a way to make happen.

Hopefully I'll get registered at the other day labor place so that I don't have to go back and do this again. If so, I may work there tomorrow. If not, I can head back to the first one.