Being and Homelessness
Subtitle: Notes from an Underground Artist
Publisher: WordsworthGreenwich Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Greenwich, CT
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 248
ISBN-13: 9781468016086
Table of contents: title: John Sibley was a homeless artist living in winter on the streets of Chicago for six months. The terrain is Chicago’s Loop, Near Westside and the now abolished Maxwell Street open-air market between 1989 and 2005. His aim in these philosophical essays is to shed light on a growing global problem.; title: "Being and Homelessness" is not as much concerned with the cause but the wretched anxiety and pain of being homeless, which forces one to live, to exist in an inauthentic mode of "being-in-the-world." Sibley uses an existential lens to focus on this ghastly problem because the homeless being-in-itself is forged in rootlessness, displacement, and their lives are governed by the existential D’s of death, dread and despair. After his dark night of the spirit Sibley believes that being homeless in the world, displaced and rootless, is one of the most terrifying challenges that a human can experience.; title: "I gazed down into the underbelly of the abyss. I am blessed that I escaped the stygian darkness of the nether world of alleys, bridge viaducts, vacant cars and subways caverns. To escape that region of dread and despair teaches you that pain and suffering are central to the human condition," Sibley writes.; title: In these essays Sibley uses the term "being-in-the-world" as an experience that makes one acutely aware of that gap between consciousness and objects in the world. Being-in-the-world makes the homeless aware of a distance, an emptiness, a gap that separates them from the region of things. This essay is a plea to maximize this nation’s resources, both public and private to help the wretched existence of the homeless.; title: "I cannot recall the exact day-to-day or month-to-month suffering that I endured, but the existential feeling of dread, despair, hopelessness, wretchedness and loneliness still clings to my consciousness. I write to illuminate the plight of the homeless so that when you see them in libraries, on subways, city buses, local train stations or standing in front of missions like they had stepped out of painter Edward Hopper’s canvas, you won’t judge them, as Anatole Broyard noted, as 'creatures of the darkness, where sex, drugs, gambling and other crimes are directed against a bourgeois culture that despises them.'”; title: The homeless problems have become a Malthusian nightmare not just in Chicago but in urban cities across the nation and worldwide. The large population of homeless men, women and children give most urban cities a Third-World Urbanscape. It would be disingenuous to state that the homeless only need shelter when the problem is much deeper than that. The Government needs to invest in creating a new Integrative Holistic Rehab Center [IHRC] to combat the multiple cause of homelessness.; title: Heed the words of the homeless, Danish genius, Kierkegaard, who believed philosophy must recognize the presence of man-in-the-world. The reality is that for millions in our time we are only a lost job, a breadwinner's disability or death, a business failure, a lawsuit, a divorce, a long-term illness or natural disaster away from homelessness.; label: Let the experience of John Sibley inspire you with its honesty, faith and redemption.; title: "He is able to give us a glimpse into a world that most of us hope and pray we will never see." -- Lisa Sachs; title: "This is a book that will challenge a reader to re-examine your beliefs, biases, and positions. It will cause inner reflection and lots of future research and/or conversations. I recommend this book for anyone who has lived to walk in the same paths as the author. But, more importantly, I recommend this to everyone who has never experienced any of these things. If you have never been homeless, unemployed, discriminated against, or arrested then you must read this." -- Steve Perigo; title: "His love of art, literature, and music shine through at various points in the book." -- Matthew Brennan