H.R. Maxwell, people call me 'Max.'
*UPDATE* As we closed in on October of 2023, I reminisced about the fact that it was in October of 2016 that our bout of homelessness began. So I pulled this site out of the unpublished pile and dusted it off. There's something to be said for things coming full circle, as we are now housed. Still, the journey isn't over, there is much to process.
I'm H.R. Maxwell or to some, just Max. I was born and currently reside in the United States and I am extremely grateful for that. This country has it's problems though and I have had, from a young age, a rather unique perspective on that. I was orphaned at the age of nine and raised as a ward of the state. Growing up that way is both a blessing and a curse, it just depends on choice. Generally, I choose to find the blessings in things.
In my youth there wasn't much choice for me, foster families, "group homes" or "shelter care," chosen by the state. It was an environment rife with unpleasant people, all of whom had much to teach a child like myself, sponge-like and obsessed with learning. At first my goal was to learn to be a person worthy of adoption rather than just fostering. Inevitably that goal transformed into a habit of constant self improvement having realized early on that I would never measure up to anyone's expectations of me since no one, besides myself, could be bothered to have any.
How liberating. And limiting.
I attended college and traveled. When I was done with college, I just traveled. I found ways to travel from hitch hiking to catching rides with Deadheads to jumping trains to traveling with the carnival. I spent time with traveling families of varied backgrounds from carnies to gypsies to deadheads to trail hikers to global trampers. During this time I considered myself to be "intentionally homeless." Back then a homeless person could get a job, even a minimum wage job, and so long as they worked thirty to forty hours a week, find a place to rent quite easily. I settled briefly from time to time, mostly seasonally, and was always thinking about when I'd hit the road next.
During this time I took varied jobs. I cleaned, I was a nanny, a Tarot card reader, a paid scribe, you name it. Everything from gardening to feeding chickens to pushing cattle on horseback to cleaning toilets to milking goats. I worked at an upscale clothing boutique, a head shop, a cafe, a mall kiosk, a mini-mart or two, whatever was needed. I was meeting people who were the very definition of community and it was present in the way they lived, in word and deed.
I was also meeting people who were trying to build communities, some more like shabbily furnished crash pads paid for with trust funds and Mom and Dad's credit cards, more often than not, unbeknownst to Mom and Dad. Often they had work in exchange for a place to pitch a tent. Some were all about fetching water and rough living, others not so much. Some were about building community, others...not so much.
Some of these communities were doomed from the start, others are still going today in either a diminished capacity or they have grown exponentially, to the point of being entirely self supported. I would see them in all different stages of development and watch people working together, or not. I saw many fights and disputes. I saw accusations and assumptions tear people apart. More importantly, I saw how people resolved things when they weren't going smoothly. Conflict resolution became a point of focus for me and I became an experienced mediator.
My education in psychology helped somewhat but nothing in textbooks prepares you for real life conflict or for real life LIFE for that matter. Even back then that education was somewhat archaic, but it did give me a template with which to work despite the variables in these situations being infinite and largely in flux. Suffice it to say, I learned far more in my travels and real life experience than I ever learned in college, and what I learned from experience has proven far more useful and productive for a person who learns the way I do.
I'm not here to diminish a college education, I would never twist this into some "book education vs. experience education" argument, in point of fact, I'm rarely looking to argue at all, it isn't my process. I prefer to learn, I learn from every person and from every process I'm exposed to, shutting myself off to any experience would be non-productive. These two different styles of practicing psychology are both of value. If the point is to help people, it should never be about trivial things like disapproving someone else's process simply because it isn't familiar.
I have seen what happens time and time again to those who think they have absolutely nothing left to learn, they're left to learn absolutely nothing. I prefer not to self-limit. My proclivity is more for the field, on the fly, gritty out in the streets type of work rather than the cozy office with a sweet chaise lounge though. I function outside the safe spaces and labels traditional psychology specializes in. I function for the people who don't have the luxury of those things. Think of it as seeing the Bigger Picture.
Seeing the big picture just means I see much of what others don't because we aren't looking in the same places. Unique experiences throughout my life, whether by choice, accident or circumstance, have given me a different perspective, not better, not worse, just different. The disadvantages I have had, chosen or by circumstance, made me resourceful in different ways, strong in different ways and humble. Also, to be honest, a little impatient with people taking advantage of or dehumanizing others.
I don't know if it was due to accident, circumstance or both that I landed at Opportunity Village, as to the choice aspect, it was the last option left. It would mark the first time I wasn't intentionally homeless and to top that, I had my daughter with me, game-changers to be sure. From day one I began making observations, it's just what I do. I didn't fit in with the folks at the village for more reasons than I can name here, yet I found the people there interesting and a bit predictable.
It was thus that I decided to carry on, separated and yet a part of something. It really wasn't a leap to become an observant researcher. It was a way to separate myself from people I had nothing in common with other than that I was homeless. It was a way to look in from the metaphorical outside as that is precisely where I was, on the outside looking in. I learned even more than I bargained for.
And that is how this study began.
*If you still have questions, please feel free to email me using the contact form below. I'll answer all emails as quickly as I can.
I'm H.R. Maxwell or to some, just Max. I was born and currently reside in the United States and I am extremely grateful for that. This country has it's problems though and I have had, from a young age, a rather unique perspective on that. I was orphaned at the age of nine and raised as a ward of the state. Growing up that way is both a blessing and a curse, it just depends on choice. Generally, I choose to find the blessings in things.
In my youth there wasn't much choice for me, foster families, "group homes" or "shelter care," chosen by the state. It was an environment rife with unpleasant people, all of whom had much to teach a child like myself, sponge-like and obsessed with learning. At first my goal was to learn to be a person worthy of adoption rather than just fostering. Inevitably that goal transformed into a habit of constant self improvement having realized early on that I would never measure up to anyone's expectations of me since no one, besides myself, could be bothered to have any.
How liberating. And limiting.
I attended college and traveled. When I was done with college, I just traveled. I found ways to travel from hitch hiking to catching rides with Deadheads to jumping trains to traveling with the carnival. I spent time with traveling families of varied backgrounds from carnies to gypsies to deadheads to trail hikers to global trampers. During this time I considered myself to be "intentionally homeless." Back then a homeless person could get a job, even a minimum wage job, and so long as they worked thirty to forty hours a week, find a place to rent quite easily. I settled briefly from time to time, mostly seasonally, and was always thinking about when I'd hit the road next.
During this time I took varied jobs. I cleaned, I was a nanny, a Tarot card reader, a paid scribe, you name it. Everything from gardening to feeding chickens to pushing cattle on horseback to cleaning toilets to milking goats. I worked at an upscale clothing boutique, a head shop, a cafe, a mall kiosk, a mini-mart or two, whatever was needed. I was meeting people who were the very definition of community and it was present in the way they lived, in word and deed.
I was also meeting people who were trying to build communities, some more like shabbily furnished crash pads paid for with trust funds and Mom and Dad's credit cards, more often than not, unbeknownst to Mom and Dad. Often they had work in exchange for a place to pitch a tent. Some were all about fetching water and rough living, others not so much. Some were about building community, others...not so much.
Some of these communities were doomed from the start, others are still going today in either a diminished capacity or they have grown exponentially, to the point of being entirely self supported. I would see them in all different stages of development and watch people working together, or not. I saw many fights and disputes. I saw accusations and assumptions tear people apart. More importantly, I saw how people resolved things when they weren't going smoothly. Conflict resolution became a point of focus for me and I became an experienced mediator.
My education in psychology helped somewhat but nothing in textbooks prepares you for real life conflict or for real life LIFE for that matter. Even back then that education was somewhat archaic, but it did give me a template with which to work despite the variables in these situations being infinite and largely in flux. Suffice it to say, I learned far more in my travels and real life experience than I ever learned in college, and what I learned from experience has proven far more useful and productive for a person who learns the way I do.
I'm not here to diminish a college education, I would never twist this into some "book education vs. experience education" argument, in point of fact, I'm rarely looking to argue at all, it isn't my process. I prefer to learn, I learn from every person and from every process I'm exposed to, shutting myself off to any experience would be non-productive. These two different styles of practicing psychology are both of value. If the point is to help people, it should never be about trivial things like disapproving someone else's process simply because it isn't familiar.
I have seen what happens time and time again to those who think they have absolutely nothing left to learn, they're left to learn absolutely nothing. I prefer not to self-limit. My proclivity is more for the field, on the fly, gritty out in the streets type of work rather than the cozy office with a sweet chaise lounge though. I function outside the safe spaces and labels traditional psychology specializes in. I function for the people who don't have the luxury of those things. Think of it as seeing the Bigger Picture.
Seeing the big picture just means I see much of what others don't because we aren't looking in the same places. Unique experiences throughout my life, whether by choice, accident or circumstance, have given me a different perspective, not better, not worse, just different. The disadvantages I have had, chosen or by circumstance, made me resourceful in different ways, strong in different ways and humble. Also, to be honest, a little impatient with people taking advantage of or dehumanizing others.
I don't know if it was due to accident, circumstance or both that I landed at Opportunity Village, as to the choice aspect, it was the last option left. It would mark the first time I wasn't intentionally homeless and to top that, I had my daughter with me, game-changers to be sure. From day one I began making observations, it's just what I do. I didn't fit in with the folks at the village for more reasons than I can name here, yet I found the people there interesting and a bit predictable.
It was thus that I decided to carry on, separated and yet a part of something. It really wasn't a leap to become an observant researcher. It was a way to separate myself from people I had nothing in common with other than that I was homeless. It was a way to look in from the metaphorical outside as that is precisely where I was, on the outside looking in. I learned even more than I bargained for.
And that is how this study began.
*If you still have questions, please feel free to email me using the contact form below. I'll answer all emails as quickly as I can.
