Originally Posted by
jowilson
Doesn't sound homeless to me... He sold his home voluntarily, and I'd say homeless people were either forced to do so, or made bad choices and lost their home. He had a debit card with money, stayed at a campground for weeks, bought you a few meals, and was retired (hence to social security check) so he obviously had a job before he went on his tour. You might want to change your definition of homeless.
- "He sold his home voluntarily" - You know that how? From what I remember of the story he told me it did not sound like that was the case.
- I'd be willing to bet that most homeless folks had a job at one time and many get some kind of monthly check.
- He didn't buy me a few meals. We each bought the other a meal.
I think he is a nice guy and I enjoyed chatting with him, but I will stick with homeless as a definition of his current lifestyle. I probably would not have used that term if I met him in the first year or even two of his trip. I do not apply that term to be judgmental, but think it is accurate. When someone lives in a tent for 10 years with a sign saying he is walking across the US, but essentially is no longer really making progress toward the coast any more, the homeless label starts to fit. I got the impression that he didn't want to get to the coast because he really didn't have any place to go home to. He stopped just short of admitting that unprompted. Add in the fact that he had apparently not seen a dentist for the 10 years he has been on the roads.
To be fair he probably wouldn't use that label, so maybe I shouldn't either. That said I think most folks who had actually met him probably would call him homeless.