I couldn’t agree more. I will add that while I fucking loath tax avoidance, I’m no fan of needless benefit claimants.
My wife on the other hand - her views on benefits claimants make Thatcher look like a lib dems.
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I could certainly have accessed services, but I’m being completely honest when I say that it never occurred to me. I was also wary of being returned home. I did ask for help over Christmastime, and was placed in a locked drug halfway house, which was one of the most interesting weeks of my life. I was in a dorm by myself because everyone else was male, and spent New Year’s Eve that year eating real food and happily engrossed in Shogun, which I still consider my all-time favorite book and which - and here is my nod to the thread - I confess that I stole when I left because I loved it so. I could probably have asked to take it and the adult me knows they’d have said yes with pleasure, but I was not then as trusting of people’s good will or as able to judge circumstances. Anyway, people were in various stages of detox, which was interesting to me. Just a nice break altogether.
Sadly, I think a lot of runaways, or walkaways, which better describes me, are similarly too naive/ignorant to access available services and just sort of scrape by, sometimes in ways that causes further slide into the abyss. Teen centers for those kids pop up (I donated a copy of Shogun to one) but they are notorious for losing funding because “those services are covered elsewhere” and there’s never enough money for people who have no voice and/or are afraid to be noticed.
I was lucky in that the experience allowed me to see the abyss, and offered motivation to stay well away. But I had qualities that made it easier for me to keep myself safe. Not everyone does.
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You just slipped through the cracks, basically. Cracks which really shouldn’t be there. But I guess social work is hard enough, plus it’s under-funded, so that’s the reality. I still hate that in rich countries in the 21st century, people go to bed hungry, and some don’t even have beds to go to.
I’m glad you made it.
Shogun’s a great book, totally worth stealing. Have you read Noble House?
And here I am, a licensed clinical social worker. The kids who come through my door don’t slip through cracks. (Though my caseload has evolved to primarily high functioning adults. Some are fellow former crack-slippers.)
Clavell…I’ve read all of them. None met the bar set for me by Shogun. Did you like Noble House as well? I have to bear in mind my age when I found Shogun. I’ve read it several times since, it’s something of a security blanket for me, but I formed my impressions as a teen.
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Sounds like a heart-warming redemption tale - not being cynical, this is the flame-free thread after all!
On a less depressing topic:
I also read and loved Clavell when I was a teenager. I re-read Shogun a few years ago and thought it was really stereo-typed and badly written. Not the same thing at all, but for me the modern author who best explains a different culture is Martin Cruz Smith, who started writing books set in the USSR (Gorky Park) and then developed his character through 8 or 9 novels going through the whole collapse of communism right through into today’s Russia. If you liked the Clavell multi-generational sagas, then I recommend reading Cruz Smith’s Arkady Renko books. They’re all brilliant stand-alone thrillers (especially the one set in Chernobyl) but they’re even better as a series.
Love me some Arkady Renko - An interesting conflicted anti-hero just trying to make sense out of his situation.
Great Books -
Joined a new gym today. During the signing up phase at the front counter a blind guy walked in complete with walking guide stick thing and cut off T and shorts. Probably 60 years old. Guy at the counter getting me set up told him to hold on and he’d be with him to help get him set up. I told the desk guy I’d be damned if I was gonna stand in the way of that man getting him pump on so he left to go help him while I waited.
When he came back we talked about him a little. He comes in M W F religiously and knows the layout fairly well. When he comes in one of the workers will go with him and pull a couple sets of dumbbells with the weights he wants and go ahead and set up the attachments on the cable machines and he does the rest.
While between sets on a back machine he found his way to the section of flat benches in front of me and Asked if anybody was using them, I responded they were all empty and his for the taking. He asked what all plates were loaded in the storage area behind him and that was it, off he went.
You know how many times I’ve skipped a workout because I didn’t feel “motivated” enough? This dude was a walking talking motivational speech. Really brought the feels.
Dude was a mother fucking STUD.
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I just dropped a barbell on my head after my BTN presses.
Didn’t even get hurt enough for a story, just a bruised ego
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Suicide grip?
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I hear dropping a barbell on your head after BTN presses is shown in studies to result in far more hypertrophy than dropping a barbell on your head before BTN presses, so congrats!
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No I was trying to drop the barbell from the top to the floor, like how you set the bar down after a snatch
Love being evidence-based 
Gotta learn to grind it up like my 10 sec overhead this week!!!
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How the fuck did I miss that? Wait a second.
I read Gorky Park years and years ago, and honestly barely remember it, so he may not be my cup of tea. I’ll take another look, though! Currently I tend toward whatever both hits the NYT Best Seller list and has been at least nominated for something, or the author has had previous Big Wins. Literary fiction. Because like my caseload of professional types, I’m all highbrow now.
I was in the grocery store produce area with my 6yo nephew and we came across a woman in a wheelchair, who had a gorgeous (as they all seem to be) service dog; a yellow lab. The nephew of course wanted to pet him, so I was explaining about the vest and what it means when a dog is working, and what sorts of things they protect against or help with. A few minutes later she asked me to reach some dressing on a high shelf, yogurt ranch. I asked if it was any good, and she responded that at 45 calories, good is relative, but yes, she liked it. It gave me time to really look at her, and she looked fantastic. I’d guess 40 at least, and she looked very fit and trim, not what I’d expect with the wheelchair. Anyway, I was similarly impressed and motivated, not because she eats 45 cal. dressing, but that whatever would require BOTH the chair and a service dog hasn’t made her lose interest in taking good care of herself. I’d bet money she works out somehow.
I bought the dressing, and it’s really good. Bolthouse Farms Classic Ranch Yogurt Dressing.
I confess that if I see her again, I’ll try to put a friend move on her. Maybe she’d like to do yoga with me, or be in a book club.
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I’ve been putting this on my coleslawfromabag.
It’s really really good like that.
I trained at a gym years ago with a guy in a wheelchair who routinely put most other gym goers to shame. Got himself on the bench and busted his ass on every rep, put his chair under the pull-up bar and knocked out a ton of chins like they were nothing,… just came in and took care of business.
If you can’t motivate yourself, no amount of “pre-workout” or magical training program is going to do it.
S
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If this is mean to be boathouse, I enjoy that brand too. Another one that makes the best cessar that I’ve had outside a restaurant is Maries
In my defence it very easy to get motivated for the “never doing leg day” programme…
All joking a side I’ve been training with an ex squaddie. Hes got no left knee. Most of its in Afghanistan. We adapt the strong man events for him. Its inspiring watching him train and listen to him talk about training. And if I’m ever not feeling like training I think about Matt - and his bloody smug northern face if he were ever able to out press me. And I go twice.
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I put a picture of that ranch yogurt dressing in my log a while back - the stuff is AMAZING and indistinguishable from ranch. I’ve heard terrible stuff about yogurt ranch, but this was awesome. Got a bottle of it in my fridge right now.
