One concept crossed my mind during the RNC/DNC campathon was that of me shifting toward (and then away from as I settled back into my regular routine in my hometown) a communal self-concept, as distinguished from an individualistic one.
While living at the encampments, and also now as I write from the house I’m renting, I like the idea of enjoying communal living without allowing it to become cultish. Communal living in encampments is good when it allows for the freedom to think independently and follow one’s individual conscience while taking collaborative action in groups large and small.
In Romneyville—Tampa was significantly hotter and had longer periods without rain than did Charlotte, despite Isaac. In Tampa on, I am not sure, either Saturday night or Sunday night, it rained heavily with heavy winds all night. And there were other heavy downpours in Tampa, but there were also longer periods of intense heat without any precipitation. Many of us used those periods to dry out our clothes by hanging them on fences or lines in the intense sun. When I filled two, gallon size plastic water bottles with water from a nearby main, I showered without needing a towel to dry off, due to the intense dry heat.
But in Charlotte it rained more frequently and the periods in between weren’t as hot or sunny. So, many of us didn’t dry our clothes well by hanging them outside of our tents or on some of the chains between posts in Marshall Park separating parts of the concrete walkways from the pond.
I used a laundry mat once while in Charlotte by cycling a distance toward the outskirts of town. I also spend several hours on more than one occasion getting good vegan meals, beer, using internet, recharging my phone, and processing audio material at the Common Market located on S. Tryon Street in Charlotte.
But I decided to quit doing audio reporting and decided not to spend my time using my computer at the Common Market when I felt dissatisfied and out of place there. One concern was that I was becoming out of touch with the pulse of what was going on at the encampment because of spending hours away from any of the other protesters. This wasn’t as much of a problem, if at all in Tampa when using Café Hay for wholesome vegan meals, internet, and access to electricity for my computer and audio recorder and phone, because the café was a short walk from Romneyville and at any given time when I was there, many, on some occasions, most of the customers inside and outside the shop were people staying at or at least involved with Romneyville.
But there is at least more than one way of looking at this. While urban camping at McPherson Square and then at Freedom Plaza in October of 2011, I got the sense I got a better perspective on the being part of the protest encampments by being able to get on my bike and ride from downtown and go thru Georgetown and then out to Friendship Heights, not only from the enjoyment of the bike ride but also from being amid various things going on in DC that had little if anything to do with the protest encampments downtown.
So, I’m not sure what to make of this exactly, because when I was in Charlotte, it seemed I was wise to minimize venturing away from our encampment for long periods. That was not only because of wanting to keep abreast of what was going on in terms of marches and other things of interest, but also as what seemed a matter of integrity in terms of how much money I spent and how much natural resources I used.
At times it seemed I was cheating when I resorted to buying sunflower seeds, apples, rice cakes, humus, broccoli, oranges, and electrolyte-enhanced water from a nearby Trader Joes in Charlotte. Not sure about it now, but at the time, some of the people at the encampment seemed to have achieved a higher level of resourcefulness; a few people such as Nic and Mike seemed to meet their needs with much less money than me.
Or perhaps, they had a type of fortitude with which to go without some of their needs being met more so than I do in that I usually don’t push past my comfort zone, even though I could probably go further without risking damage to my physical or mental health.
But I’m still not sure about this. I got sick with a bad cough when I got back from the OWS 1 year anniversary. I attribute it to going four consecutive nights with inadequate sleep, poor nutrition and stressing a bit about running low on money. Also someone volunteering with the church that had coordinated our access to the warehouse in Brooklyn where we slept on the floor was shaking her head and saying, “you guys are going to get sick sleeping on that floor.” Maybe it wasn’t clean.
Also, last year I had some health problems–(extraordinary, stabbing, hemorrhoid pain that lasted for about a week after having spent 8 days in DC at the Occupy-related urban campathon called Oct 2001. Stop the Machine. Create a New World.
But I’m not sure what happened there because I got adequate sleep, wasn’t stressed, and generally got adequate nutrition. That pain may have resulted from my heavy reliance on wet wipes due to the unavailability of showers.
So, now that I think about this, low budget travel (I’m not sure about traveling with no money) is feasible if I manage with stress, get adequate sleep, proper nutrition, proper sanitation and hygiene, and have proper clothing and shelter. But those are big if’s when you don’t have much money.
At the protest encampment in Tampa and Charlotte, many of us had a strong if not bad smell due to the lack of showers. A lot of people smoked cigarettes down to the filter.
Someone with Occupy Charlotte told me people who had been living in hotels were priced out by the price spike in the lead-up to the DNC. She said, as a result, shelters were overflowing and that some churches were helping.
There were 12 portajohns at the encampment in Charlotte.
There is a ‘spiritual’ dimension to these encampments. There is something intriguing about people such as Nic hitch-hiking from Denver to Tampa, and Mike hitch-hiking from Maine to Tampa, and 60 year old Billy Lolos who hitch hiked to various locations, sleeping in a tent behind truck stops.
Somehow I associate a type of spirituality involved when people such as Nic, Mike, or Billy travel long distances, relying on their wits and gambling on the good intentions of strangers, and going periods without adequate food, shelter, or showers.
Much depends on one’s perspective. I can imagine people looking down upon these generally poor but often rich- in -spirit vagabond activists. I am still undecided, but at times while in Tampa, Charlotte, and NYC, this type of protester seemed to exist at a level of being to which I’ve yet to graduate.
While in Tampa buying vegan food at Café Hay or in Charlotte at the Common Market or Trader Joe’s or in NYC at various eateries, I felt that I was cheating and falling short of being resolute and resourceful enough to refrain from spending money, and resourceful enough to live mostly off of donations and dumpstered food. One person told me there was an abundance of food to get from dumpsters in NYC. But I’m concerned about the way this low or no income vagabond activism would affect my physical and perhaps even mental health. I imagine some of my teeth falling out and losing some of the meat in the neck and shoulders, what little there is to start with.
On Tuesday morning, Sept 18, I met by happenstance with Nic and Audrey, the young woman with curly auburn hair, freckles and a tattoo on one of her legs. Nic and Audrey looked to have awoken not too long before I got there. They and a dozen or so others appeared to have been sleeping on cardboard mattresses on the sidewalk in front of a precinct jail. Some were with and some were without sleeping bags and camping gear such as light foldable chairs. Either way, sleeping on the sidewalk and waking as hundreds of people walked and rode by in their morning commute was a form of jail support.
I somehow mentioned to Audrey and Nic that I was spending money on food while in NYC. “Stop buying things,” Audrey said forcefully with a trace of embarrassment and self-consciousness in her face. “How can we expect to bring the revolution if we keep spending money?”
“Good point,” I said a few times, nodding my head in sleep-deprived agreement. But about 20 mins later comparing what Audrey said with the idea of supporting socially and ecologically responsible businesses with whatever little money I have intrigued me.
A week or so earlier as Nic and I sat in Marshall Park in Charlotte, I asked him about the spiritual quality of encampments.
“Most religions focus on heaven. And people apologize to God, thinking it’s ok to keep doing the things they apologized for, and thinking they don’t have to apologize to the people they’ve wronged. But that’s blasphemy. We should strive for heaven in this life, on Earth. This is why I call myself spiritual, not religious. If you feel the need to apologize to God, that‘s ok. But don’t leave out dealing with the people you‘ve wronged.”
I told Nic I was wondering about what it was that somehow seemed different about the approach to activism I was taking and the approach he and people such as Billy, Mike, Terry or Curtis were taking.
“For us, there’s a different rhythm to life.”
In some people’s minds, Occupy counters the Tea Party movement. Does that movement have low or no income vagabond activists? Venture a person could regard herself or himself as conservative yet be a wanderer.
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