Lukukokemus: The Glass Castle.

Unohdin viikoksi tietokoneeni veljeni sohvalle, mutta nyt sekin on selvitetty ja olen asettunut hetkiseksi Tampereelle. Kesäloma on siis ohi ja vuorossa kuukauden jakso Suomessa ennen Aasiaan paluuta... ja kaikkea mielenkiintoista....

Lentomatkaa piristi Blue Note Trip Plays Stevie Worder ja kirjaksi otin Jeannette Wallsin 'The Glass Castle'. Härö tunne, kun väsyttää ja ei väsytä ja haluaa lukea ja haluaa nukkua jne. Oli pakko lukea kirja loppuun saman tien, niin mielenkiintoinen se oli. Tarina perheestä. Tositarina lapsuuskodista, joka oli jatkuvasti liikkeellä. Alkoholismia ja kodittomuutta. Ja kaiken kurjuuden keskellä jotakin kaunista ja ainutkertaista, viisautta ja lahjakkuutta.     

Sosiaalisesti ei-niin-tavanomainen perhe ei ole aina niin salonkikelpoinen ja helppo esiteltävä toisille. Minua pysähdytti Wallsin tunteet:

One day I was walking down Broadway with another student named Carol when I gave some change to a young homeless guy. "You shouldn't do that," Carol said.

"Why?"

"It only encourages them. They're all scam artists."

What do you know? I wanted to ask. I felt like telling Carol that my parents were out there, too, that she had no idea what it was like to be down on your luck, with nowhere to go and nothing to eat. But that would have meant explaining who I really was, and I wasn't about to do that. So at the next street corner, I went my way without saying a thing.

I knew I should have stood up for Mom and Dad. I'd been pretty scrappy as a kid, and our family had always fought for one another, but back then we'd had no choice. The truth was, I was tired of taking on people who ridiculed us for the way we lived. I just didn't have it in me to argue Mom and Dad's case to the world.

That was why I didn't own up to my parents in front of Professor Fuchs. She was one of my favorite teachers, a tiny dark passionate women with circles under her eyes who taught political science. One day Professor Fuchs asked if homelessness was the result of drug abuse and misguided entitlement programs, as the conservatives claimed, or did it occur, as the liberals argued, because of cuts in social-service programs and failure to create economic opportunity for the poor? Professor Fuchs called on me.

I hesitated. "Sometimes, I think, it's neither."

"Can yo explain yourself?"

"I think that maybe sometimes people get the lives they want."

"Are you saying that homeless people want to live on the street?" Professor Fuchs asked. "Are you saying they don't want warm beds and roofs on their heads?"

"Not exactly," I said. I was fumbling for words. "They do. But if some of them were willing to work hard and make compromises, they might not have ideal lives, but they could make ends meet."

Professor Fuchs walked around from behind her lectern. "What do you know about the lives of the underprivileged?" she asked. She was practically trembling with agitation. "What do you know about the hardships and obstacles that the underclass faces?"

The other students were staring at me.

"You have a point," I said.     

Niin, joskus meillä on teorioita ja me luulemme tietävämme kaiken. Joskus todellisuus ei vaan kulje mallien mukaan. Muistui mieleeni lehtiartikkeli, joka käsitteli Bangkokin slummiyhdistystä. Slummilaiset olivat näet järjestäytyneet, jotta voisivat säilyttää nykyiset asuinolonsa. He argumentoivat, että lähiöiden kerrostalot eivät sovi heidän elämäntyylilleen ja että he ovat nykyisillä ammatinharjoittamisillaan korvaamattomia kaupungin infrastruktuurille. Sanopa sitten tähän enää mitään.  

PS. Jos haluat lukea kirjan, voin antaa sen eteenpäin kiertoon.