Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?



A person I drove by in Evansville a couple of years ago.  Look at his hand-- he has a wedding ring on his finger.

My brother, Nathaniel, is out there somewhere and there is nothing I can do about it.  He is calm.  He does not want to hurt himself or anybody else.  Legally he isn't a threat and can't be brought in for treatment against his will.  But, believe me there is pain.  He went almost a week without eating (he told us he was fasting) and is now without a car and on foot.  We are suffering as a family because we love him.  We want him to have the medicine he needs, a roof over his head, food and water. When I think of my brother -- I think of the guy with a great sense of humor, a person that's thoughtful and caring.  I think about all the shared memories we had as kids.  And then  I think of him walking around in this heat (they're having a heat wave in Minnesota too).  I wonder if he's able to get enough water?  The whole family wonders how he's managing. Where is he sleeping?  Is he safe?  He is bipolar, creative, intelligent and right now not very "with it."  The bad thing about this condition, in my opinion, is it sneaks up on you.  When a person is manic, they are confident and really don't have a sense of cause and effect. 

I can tell you-- I think about homeless people in a completely different way now.  There was a time I had the opinion that soup kitchens and churches ,etc. were enabling these people to be the way they are.  I thought if they didn't get free meals they'd be forced to do something about their condition.  Now I know I was wrong.  My brother would wither and die if it wasn't for the goodness of strangers.  He wouldn't understand that he was killing himself slowly.  There is a heatwave now and that is bad. But, I'm actually thinking down the road to winter.  People around here would be astonished at how cold a Minnesota winter can be.  It's tough when you're all bundled up and braced for a quick walk from the car to the store.  What if you were homeless and living out in it?  Right now I'm wondering-- will my brother survive the winter? 







 Nathaniel thinks that things are going really well with him.  He's writing (it would be interesting to see) and feels more intelligent and creative than normal.  He lives in the moment.  I'm sure winter hasn't even entered his mind, but lots of other cool stuff has.

Oh God bring him back to us...