Last night I had two separate homeless individuals describe their home life growing up and how it affected them. One believed that it is the reason he is homeless and leaving in an abandoned building with no education and no job. He believes that if he had had better parents things would have turned out better for him. He explained that in any family situation a child needs love and understanding. He did receive the love but he never received understanding. His father was not educated enough to take the time to give him an understanding or teaching him how to buy his first car, balance a checkbook, explain sex, or giving him proper direction. He said that his father would not even walk off the field with him, like the other Dads, after a football game. And his mother would’t even go to see him play. So to him understanding is the act of passing knowledge and spending quality time with your child. This he did not receive. Now he spends his time reading and writing about theology and talking with anyone who will listen to him about his latest revelation from God. He seems very bitter about his situation.
The other individual told me about listening to a talk show about the book of Revelation and he heard his real father call in with a question. He said he knew his voice immediately before he identified himself. He really did not know him growing up because he was not claimed as his child for many years. It seems that his mother had got involved with him even though she was already married and tried to pass him off as the child of her current husband. Things came out when his real father’s sisters convinced him to acknowledge own son. But he never spent any time with him until he was around 14 years old. I would say that his family was more dysfunctional than the other one but this individual did not think it caused him to be homeless. I am sure your family situation has a lot to do with how you turn out but many rise above difficult situations and others seem never get over how they were treated as a young child. So is it heredity or environment or a combination of the two that shapes our lives? I am sure both play a part.
~Marc
