Posts Tagged ‘Marti Maltby’
Looking Forward
Peace House Community”“A Place to Belong By MARTI MALTBY A recent email from HousingLink, a local nonprofit that works on low income housing issues, contained links to news articles with depressing titles like: â— “Elderly and homeless: America”™s next housing crisis” â— “New report shows Minnesota LGBTQ teens and adults overrepresented in homeless population” â— “Homeless and facing winter in Minneapolis” â— “Homeless families struggle with impossible choices as school closures continue” â— “Homeless advocates blame Minneapolis”™ continued lack of affordable housing for ”˜Wall of Forgotten Natives”™ resurgence” â— “Neighbors object to Ramsey County plan to convert St. Paul hospital into a homeless shelter” While I try to find positive things to pass on to others, [...]
Keep Calm
Peace House Community ”“ A Place to Belong BY MARTI MALTBY American society seems to have become a lot less civil over the years. I know bullies and those who overreact to perceived slights have always existed, but it seems as though people now think it is their patriotic duty to accuse others of committing a moral wrong every time they hear something that offends them. These days conversations and social media aren”™t used to establish mutual understanding as much as to tell other people why they are wrong. In some ways I can understand why this is happening now. Between the pandemic, economic collapse, social unrest, and the loss of routine and certainty, we should expect that people will be on edge. Emotions are running high, and people will react more strongly than usual to things that upset them. But on the other hand, panic never made anything better. (You can put that on a t-shirt if you think it will help anyone around you.) The [...]
Groundhog Day
Peace House Community””A Place to Belong By MARTI MALTBY Back in May, when people had settled into the Covid-19 lockdown, a survey by OnePoll asked Americans how their sense of time was being affected by spending day after day in their homes. The results included: The average American got confused about what day it was five times every week.59% of respondents didn”™t even know what day it was when they took the survey.65% of those polled said they were struggling to stay motivated during self-isolation. When I heard the results, my mind immediately flashed back many months to a meditation discussion I led at PHC. I asked community members what parts of homelessness could never be explained but simply had to be experienced. Several people gave answers that almost exactly mirrored the survey results I just mentioned. Among other things, the community members said: “It”™s like Groundhog Day. Every day is just like the day [...]
