whitedragon52's Journal

[link] in a autobiographical reference

Delos Chang is a Dartmouth College comedy writer. His works comprise a fifty word palindrome and the economics of finding and catching leprechauns.

There''s a statement in Moby Dick where Queequeg, the charismatic cannibal harpooner, talks about a specific custom that hails from deficiency of sofas as part of his native land:

...because of the lack of settees and sofas of all kinds, the king, chiefs, and great folks normally, were within the custom of fattening a number of the lower orders for ottomans you''d have to only to purchase up eight or ten lazy fellows, and lay them round inside the piers and alcoves.

It is a funny scenario to paint in the mind''s eyes: a lot of couch-potatoes eventually put to good use. I can tell you from practical experience that the most industrious of men may enjoy his day of sleep as soon as inside a long while, and might value becoming called a sofa, unusual as that may sound.

I, Delos Chang, have long been somebody who needs to keep his feet, and intellect, moving. Ever seeking new challenges to put upon myself, it happened one summer that we stumbled on an unusual ad. It read: Open your mind-Be homeless for any day! An experience you won''t ever forget! Participation fee: $5 or 5 cans of food. It struck me as a crazy notion. Who within their correct mind would pay to sleep beneath a bridge and go famished The longer your day developed, however, the harder the idea attracted me. How frequently, after all, do we have the opportunity to truly experience such vastly different viewpoints Why was it an enormously crazy thought after all that I need to go through a way of life that huge numbers of people live via each day Adventure-seeker that I''m, I signed up the subsequent Thursday for a appropriate day''s transience.

The first order of business involved the relinquishing of belongings. The coordinating committee supplied a pile of tattered attire from where we battled against each other to uncover pieces that fit. I wore a green-black flannel over black, bleach-stained sweatpants, and mismatched sandals. It was at this point, I watched myself inside the dim reflection of the glass door, and i also realized a pair of things: This is likely to be harder than I thought, and Surfaces are superficial.

The day had very little glamour. I must''ve walked fifteen miles, in no way pleased with the mechanical gazes of pity that slapped me like darts whenever I stopped to sit. By the conclusion of the day, I was thoroughly worn out. I slept away from shelter, along with the other volunteer hobos. Soon after such a day, it had been considerably less complicated to snooze on the sidewalk.

I woke up to a claustrophobic heaviness, a minor commotion. A young girl had been located on my back. Her father known as her from me with curses. But he appears like a big pillow, she protested because he pulled her away. He talked to her in the quiet tone, of which I could only find out lazy and bum. I felt a knot in my stomach. At that moment Queequeq''s king might have taken me for top of sofas. A mature gentleman unexpectedly analyzed and said He does appear to be a pillow. He could almost be considered a settee. Perhaps you have read Moby Dick I hadn''t. I didn''t know what a settee was, but all of us laughed. It had been that laugh that lifted all my weariness.

I recognize the literary reference now. And now following time has passed, I''ve got a strange nostalgia to the bizarre, homeless evening. I was unsettled. I was stared at. I was sat upon. I was called a pillow plus an 18th century seat. So numerous viewpoints unfolded inside the vista of that day. Five cups of food plus an open intellect can instruct a lot to a person. For 1, a idle fellow may be no sluggish fellow whatsoever. Secondly, your sofa could be sentient.

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