Becoming Batman: A Social Experiment

Ok, no, I am not Bruce Wayne the Prince of Gotham, Australia is more than a thousand miles away, and so long as we are going for accuracy - my Father had a heart attack, he was not shot.

My first week back in Sydney before returning home I will be partaking in a social experiment.

“Why Edward, what sort of social experiment?”

Well, Falconie (the mob boss) brings up an interesting point, ever wonder what it is to be homeless?

“Oh God… Edward! No… you aren’t… you’re not gonna… but why?!?!”

Ironically the person who will least like this idea, is actuall one of the main inspirations behind it. When I was eight years old, my Madre took me back to the Motherland (Honduras) to visit our family. The first time (besides birth of course) being in a third world country. The smell, the filth, the poverty, all like we don’t see in the states was all new to me. I vividly remember my Madre and I walking around the capital and she would, every once and awhile stop and give some of the coins she had with her to some poor who happened to be in the area.

I remember asking her, “Why are there so many poor people here?” I had never seen so many. She basically replied something along the lines of, “There is not as much opportunity here like there is in the U.S.” I was young and accepted it as fact.

But then I was slightly older and we were in Miami, and I saw her give some change to an old woman.
“I thought we had opportunity here? Why so many homeless in a big U.S. City?”

“It is more complicated than that Mijo”

I didn’t think her second answer was as convincing as her first.

It has been a question that has plagued me since.

The more important follow up question that has also plagued me since is:
“What can I do about it?”

Not in the sarcastic, pessimistic, cynic way; but the optimistic, messiah complex way.

The number one reason I talk of the Presidency is to help others (ok, #2 might be my own pride and arrogance).

The thing I think that appealed to me about Christ’s teachings must be the “take care of the widows and fatherless”. Probably because until my Stepdad came along, I was one of those and my mother was the other. But if our sole job description as Christians is “be like Christ” (love God and love others) then… the truth is, we should all be fired. If Christianity was the military, we should ALL be DIShonorably discharged.

One of my favorite Gandhi quotes is; “I like your Christ, I do not like your christians, they are not like your Christ.”

Ok, that rant aside (for right now) Joshua bar Jehovah (you might know his Romanized name, “Jesus”) did say a lot about taking care of the poor.

That’s great, but how do we do it in 2010? How do we put what we “want” to do, and convert into what we do “do”?

MORE BACKSTORY!
(Because I’m into how stories tie together to become one)

I’m writing a play, and one of the main characters is homeless, I don’t want to give it away, but there is a LOT more to him then one might think.

So one day I was in Pastor Aaron’s office and I told him about it yada yada to see what he thought yada yada. At some point he hands me a book which I had actually heard of one time before but didn’t remember at the time.

The book is “That Printer of Udell’s” written in 1912, it focuses on a Missourian tramp who one day decides NOT to be the loser his father was. He completely reforms his life, goes from less than zero to hero and gets the girl of his dreams all by the end of the book. In the process, he creates a non-profit to reform homeless and give them an opportunity.

When he lent it to me, as he pulled it off the shelf and handed it to me, Aaron said, “I think you’ll really like that book. I can see you getting a lot of ideas from it.”

He was right.

It was President Reagan’s favorite book also, and I said the same thing as him when I finished it, “I want to be just like that guy!”

So, it has become my favorite book and I have gotten a lot of ideas from it. For the past three years I have been trying to think of a way to create a real life-modern day version of the non-profit described in the book. The problem is, it is dependent on the individual, and as I have been learning, you can’t change someone who doesn’t want to change themselves. Also, how can I help who I do not understand? One could make the argument that, “Edward, if I want to help rape victims, according to you… should I let myself get raped?” OR “If I wanted to help someone who has lost a loved one, can I only do that if I have also?”

NO, That is not at all what I am saying. For starters, those are 100% out of control incidents. I am talking about an ongoing way of life. Plus, experiencing homelessness can be done relatively safely. My method probably is not the safest, but it could be much worse. I could be doing this in Honduras.

What then drives a person living on the streets of a major city in a first world country?
What are the day to day struggles they go through?
How do they get by?

Since I am about 448 km to the nearest person who would try to stop me, and about another 7,000 miles from everyone else who would try to stop me AND being tired of asking myself these questions over and over again. I decided to do this little social experiment.

I am going to spend a week of my life as a homeless person as best I can within reason.

I plan to:
*Make contact with as many as possible
*Observe/track as many possible
*Potentially spend the night in a homeless shelter
*Beg for food/money
*Sleep on the streets
*Stay away from the Pink House as much as possible lest I fall to temptation
*Learn as many different things as I can.

Being a Boy Scout and a former camp counselor who taught the Wilderness Survival Merit Badge, I will have an “Urban Survival Kit” (USK) with me.

My backpack/USK will have:
*Map of Sydney
*Water Bottle
*Means of keeping time
*Light jacket
*2 blank journals
*Pen
*Sharpie (texter) for cardboard signs
*Bible to review verses on poor
*My camera for record keeping and memories
*Batteries to keep the camera going the week
*And just for good measure… a rosary incase the shit hits the fan. (“But Edward… you are not Catholic?!” ya, I know… I told you, last resort)




I will wear the same set of clothes consisting of clothes I wore working on the farm that can be thrown out at any time.




No rules on what I can accumulate or how, so long as it is not on any credit card.

Ways I am stacking the deck in my favor:
*Already bought a week pass on Sydney’s public transport system that covers buses, ferries, and subways/trains.
*One last meal to get rid of cash in hand
*Wearing my running shoes for easy get away as opposed to previous idea of flip flop/bare foot
*Knowledge in self defense
*A bit of a plan
*And MOST importantly… the knowledge that for me, it’s temporary

That is why in my blog I said Andrew would be the author of the week, to help throw a bit of a smoke screen as to what I am up to my first week in Sydney.

One of my favorite “christian” songs (which is really saying something because I think most “christian” music is a joke and South Park had a lot of things right) is called “Give Me Your Eyes”, haven’t a clue who does it, but the meaning is beautiful. It is a prayer to God for the wisdom and understanding to look at people, ALL people, with love.

I struggle with this. Proof: how much do I make fun of the frogs? (Sorry Florent & Marie) and Canadians? (Sorry Ruby) And… well… ok… pretty much, the way I make a sport of EVERYBODY in general. At least I don’t discriminate and make fun of Zack, Leroy, Juan, Chan, Tonto, and Hackmed evenly. I know, it’s still wrong, but I figure it is the right way of being wrong (sense?)

Anyway… moving on…

It may seem a little Urban-Survivorman or Man Vs. Wild-City at some points because I will be writing as I go along and the thoughts come to me.

That pretty much covers the gist of it, for my details I left out, comment below or email/facebook me.

I am publishing the log that I keep this week here in my blog when I get back to the hostel (and after a shower).

And now, off to learn how to save Gotham!