Monday

Dwelling Place. {Idaho Photographer}

Sometimes, I take for granted that I have a warm bed to sleep in, a roof over my head, and warm meals to eat...o.k., almost every day I do. I'm going to guess that most of the middle-high class peeps take these things for granted, cause if you really think about it, would you guess there would ever be a day in your life you wouldn't have a roof over your head? Warm food to eat? A nice cozy bed to sleep in every night?

My answer is no.

The other day, my husband told me about a place he thought I'd be interested in adding to my list of places to shoot. So, with kids in hand, we ventured out to this unknown place....soon to be an unknown world of existence.

..............


My husband was right. A broken down, cool fab-tabulous place from my initial vantage point. "Cuz seriously, who doesn't like old, graffiti ridden concrete pillars strategically placed all in a row??




....beautiful weeds with so much character....



Other peoples' garbage and trash (one man's treasure) strewn haphazardly everywhere...



As we got closer, I noticed a peculiar arrangement of "stuff".





At first, I thought it was a hang out for local high schoolers; a place to get away and chillax. Nicely decorated with homemade art, sitting places, fire pit.






But then, I saw the makeshift toilet...with toilet paper. My thoughts then geared toward a homeless man...




...And things got weird for me. I felt awkward, a bit scared, and definitely unwelcome. I mean, this was a place of dwelling for somebody, I felt I had just walked right up to a random house on a street, opened it's door and welcomed myself inside. Not the best feeling in the world. It was just plain weird....but my curiosity made me loom there a bit longer, until my anxiety of having my kids there with me and not knowing if there was somebody hiding out in the makeshift fort, made me flee. But I oh so wanted to check out the inside. Sneak a peak at what kind of sleeping arrangements had been made inside.

Trespassing, breaking and entering, loitering, intruding. All words that raced through my head.

But I understand where all those Fred Meyer shopping carts came from. His daily/weekly/monthly? trips to Fred Meyer. And what a perfect name. Ozwald Cassidy.




All those feelings that rushed through me in my venture, all uncomfortable, reminded me of the song, "Better is One Day."

How lovely is Your dwelling place
Oh, Lord Almighty
.........

'Cause better is one day in Your courts
Better is one day in Your house
Better is one day in Your courts
Than thousands elsewhere

I hope that one day, Ozwald Cassidy will experience a lovely dwelling place ridden of cold meals, and cold beds.

I, myself will never again take for granted my warm bed and warm meals.

2 comments:

Bree said...

Wow... just wow. There are no other words.

Mike Roberts said...

Wonderful visual and verbal essay.