Rent

Photo: Peter Petraitis

The first of the month...rent due. Two days ago I spoke with a man camped under a bridge in Boston. He was young, relative to me, perhaps forty. He sat casually on a rattan chair with a cushion, a trash-heap find, I assumed. As we spoke, he puffed on a cigarette with the air of a habitue of a Paris cafe. I thanked him for informing me that the waterside path I was following terminated abruptly ahead due to the impossible inefficiencies of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Later that evening, I thought about this apparently fit, handsome man, living rent-free under a bridge, which connects two of Boston's higher-rent districts. He exemplified for me the absurdity of what we call civilization. His obvious resourcefulness goes unused while many with less resourcefulness live in luxury housing a stone's throw away. They have richer parents or family connections or just plain good luck.

I think of the rent I pay every month to a landlady who does not live in my building and shows little care for it. She is a lovely person, but I cannot be convinced that a society which encourages this kind of exploitation of housing for profits is truly civilized. Those who provide housing for others, in my opinion, should be willing to live in comparable circumstances themselves. If this were the norm, there would be no slums.

Our human detachment from our natural environment is evidenced by our housing. We evolved as family groups and tribes whose prime directive was the survival and sustenance of all members the group. In that evolution, we have lost some crucial values in favor of power and economic hierarchies. Perhaps our way back to a healthier environment will entail finding that lost cohesion of our humanity. It may continue to grow in the form of gangs, centered on terrorist or illegal drug activity, as the gap between rich and poor grows, if those in power choose to ignore the issues.

Since government on much of the planet has lost its human values, positive human evolution will most likely take the development of individuals, brought together by social media, to begin the process of healing our ailing human civilization. My part in this is to continue my humanist practice and to support the practice of others who pursue peace, health and joy.