Given the directon of the content, I debated whether to post here or in the Barry's Kitchen blog. I may do a related post there, but I've been reminded over the years that the journey is often more significant than the destination.
This is a muse that moseys along, so bear with me.
There's a new volunteer on Tuesday nights when we feed some people living outdoors (apparently the PC term for describing the homeless nowadays). I will refer to him as Marty (but that's not his real name). He's been through a lot, including being sexually assaulted by his father as a child. He completed his last stint of incarceration almost ten years ago, and he became eligible for section eight which finally came through. Some folks believe that putting a roof over someone's head is *the* prerequisite impetus required to get an individual rehabilitated. I would agree that it would help a significant percentage of those living outdoors, but it's not the panacea. Tying these two thoughts together, part of what I look to do moving forward to do what I can to help people who get housing along in their rehabilitation process. Marty's always had a rough edge which is completely understandable given his history. This was also influenced by his incarceration which led him to adopt a coping behavior of being very aggressive/hard-nosed in his interactions with people. This led to a recent altercation which resulted in a head fracture and recurring seizures. I was encouraged to allow him to participate by manning a hot drinks table where he dispenses tea/coffee & cups of soup for folks who show up and we've run out of food. We now spend time talking and sometimes smoking cigars as we do our takedown after the meal every Tuesday. This past week we touched on no longer needing to use an adopted prison persona to protect himself as he moves forward.
This led me to recalling the TV series Rectify which came out about ten years ago. The series followed the rehabilitation of someone who spent nearly two decades on death row when his conviction was overturned based on DNA evidence. The main character was portrayed by actor Aden Young, who was nominated for several awards for his portrayal. It occurs to me that the character's journey back into regular life isn't necessarily all that different from what often needs to happen when someone moves back indoors. But there's more: I've followed Aden Young's work ever since, and he got cast on theToronto version of TV series Law & Order franchise. I've begun following that show and one of the episodes of the first season was centered on investigating the murder of someone who was in charge of a tent community. It turned out that he'd chosen that neighborhood because his daughter and the mother of his daughter lived in that neighborhood and someone who'd known him commented that it was grief that led to him living outdoors.
Another segue: I like Nicholas Cage, and I've got a selection of a lot of his movies. including Pig which came out in 2021. The plot seems to center around a hermit seeking to recover a truffle hunting pig that was stolen from him. This hermit was a former constellation in the Portland culinary scene but he'd taken to living in the woods and hunting truffles. It turned out that the person who buys the truffles is the son of the person who'd had the pig stolen, in part because he'd cornered the market on all local produce and his son was cutting into his business but what tied the protagonist and antagonist together is that they'd both lost their wives. The antagonist's wife had suffered from clinical depression and the only joyful moment she'd experienced was eating a meal prepared at the protagonist's restaurant, after which she'd committed suicide or done something that resulted in her being in a permanent vegetative state. The husband had responded by creating a monopoly on supplying all the local restaurants and it all came to a head when the protagonist recreated that same meal in the antagonist's home. The protagonist told the antagonist that he'd remembered every meal he'd ever cooked and every guest he'd ever served, which prompted the antagonist to admit that he'd had the pig stolen, but the actual thieves were rough with the pig which led to its death. The protagonist then crumpled to the floor in shock, but when he returned back to his cabin in the woods, he plays a cassette tape of his wife singing a song to him in his restaurant, which suggested that it'd always been about losing his wife and adopting the pig as some sort of surrogate.
What I find fascinating is the idea that two people unable to cope with their grief each adopt radical coping behaviors, but in opposite directions. The protagonist closed his restaurant and abandoned civilization with only a truffle hunting pig for companionship while the antagonist did very well for himself financially with his business making getting reservations at any top local restaurant a given. Yet only the protagonist would be identified as having mental health issues.