No matter how limited the supply, scavengers will eat.
I started thinking about how expensive all resources are getting. Food, shelter, water, heating & cooling costs, when combined, can be too much to afford for many by traditional methods. People who are in need and desperate need to get creative.
Like scavengers in nature, I look at human scavengers as serving an essential function in their ecosystem. Imagine if an extended drought left a range of dead wildebeests and there were no hyenas, jackals, vultures, and assorted insects to play clean up duty?
Human scavengers can find food through dumpster diving, knowing which restaurants give handouts at the end of the night, and search through neighborhood bins for castoff metals, empty beverage bottles, etc. that can be traded in for cash. They know how to cut deals in the bartering underworld. They can also be exploited by the unethical into being hired for dangerous day laborer jobs, coerced into prostitution, and drug dealing.
Some might look down on human scavengers when they cross a line by pulling copper wire out of homes or stealing bikes and other items to sell to pawn shops for cash. Yes, it is illegal. I also understand that if you have to choose between feeding your hungry child or not, a scavenger has to make hard choices.
leather shoes walk by
child huddled in thin blanket
cool autumn sidewalk
image: “Hungry Child,” by Vinayak Deshmukh
Bjorn is today’s host at dVerse’ Meet the Bar. Bjorn says:
Today I would like you to formulate your own aphorism and publish them on your blog. If you want to, please add a short piece of prose explaining your aphorism.
Tao Talk 
I’ve seen people hunting for good in dumpsters. It’s heartbreaking to watch. One feels ashamed that they are reduced to such acts. A very kind king abolished the sentence for stealing food in times of scarcity because stealing food to eat isn’t a crime.
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It is heartbreaking to see desperate people trying to survive. The very kind king you mention is unfortunately the exception rather than the rule 😦
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Yes to both points Li.
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The food banks can’t keep up with the demand. It’s heartbreaking. (K)
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😦
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It is a sad world that we have to have scavengers. But we have to, they have to live. We skimp sometimes but have no idea how hard it is if only to live by the means you have said. I have given gas away at the stations, filled their tanks. But seldom gave them money.
Oh yes, my ex gave away one of my cars. It was a begining-to-be a classic but she didn’t know that. The car was very much appreciated. Houston folk HAVE TO HAVE A CAR, as we have limited public transportation. Often too, they will end up living in it when their assets are nearly gone.
..
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Jim, thank you for your thoughtful commentary. I can’t imagine how peeved you must have been to find your car was given away without your knowledge or permission.
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There are going to be more if the prices keep going like they have been. Many families are only a check or two away from that place right now.
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I KNOW Max. It’s frightening from every angle.
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Sadly, it is such a common sight in my part of the world that most of us are not moved by their plight. 😔
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Punam that is heartbreaking.
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It sure is. 😓
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One thing that has always bothered me and will continue to bother me is all the food that is thrown out. From supermarkets, restaurants…I understand that if stores gave food away they wouldn’t make any money but there are people who don’t have the money to buy it! Why throw it away? Oh, when I think of it I get so angry. It is no wonder homeless people want to live in cities. Some of their meals, which have been thoughtlessly thrown out probably cost more than they will ever have in their entire life.
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I agree with you, Christine. I do think that some stores donate the food to various places. And yes on the most destitute gravitating to cities. I also know people who live in rural areas that hunt deer for their sustenance. Unfortunately they sometimes also run grow operations (which are now legal in MI, btw) and meth labs.
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There is always a bad to go with the good.
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I am all for reusing, upcycling and any legitimate form of scavenging. However, if it becomes an a practice dependent on other people’s wellbeing or legitimately earned property I think an appropriate level of social welfare should be in place or even a universal wage.
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For sure, Sean.
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It is also sad that there are so many of us who leave things in our dumpsters fro scavengers to find. I would find it better that the scavenger could find sustenance without dumpster diving.
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Bjorn, I know what you mean.
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The thought of children suffering from hunger, which of course sadly has been going on for as long as I’ve lived, and people needing to dumpster-dive really breaks my heart. It makes me think of Ralph McTell’s “Streets of London” and how privileged those of us are, who have food and shelter! Unfortunately, many folks take these things for granted way too much – unfortunately, this oftentimes includes myself.
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Thank you for your thoughtful comment, Christian and I am guilty of it also.
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It is heartbreaking to see people doing what they need to do to survive. And yes, with the cost of things, there are more and more.
Nicely written, Lisa.
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Thank you, Dale. I know it is much harder on the homeless who live in extreme climates.
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For sure. I love when we see those who supply those igloos for them to sleep in… but it’s only helping some with one aspect.
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Learned and/or was reminded of a new word today: aphorism. Completely forgot what it meant, Li! lol. My mother used to take food to an elderly couple…who were living in their car. Just thinking about that makes my blood boil. And I feel helpless most of the time, beyond handing out change or saying yes to contributions at the store, or donating things around town. It’s so little! And god knows, any one little thing could go wrong, and WE’D be living out of our car. It’s not beyond possibility. I think the majority is like that, poised on the brink. It’s no way to live. I hope to do more to help in the future.
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Stacie, I don’t think I knew what an aphorism (at least by that name) was until this prompt. I created this one when I contemplated if I was going to have to scrabble for survival (on the brink, in your words, and then going over) who would I choose to have with me, a rich, privileged person who has never been hungry in their life or someone who has learned to survive through necessity. No contest. I’d choose the survivor without question. I have set amounts I give to charities each month, and even though I don’t like the “administrative fees” that charities like to chomp on which take away from the benefit to the needy, I do think some of it does reach them. Thank you for your thoughtful comment, and God Bless Your Mother.
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🙂 🙂
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