Living on a Shoestring

Living on a Shoestring

The shoestring on the front gate at Manna House was gone this morning. When we unlock and open the gate, we use a shoestring to attach it to the fence to keep it from swinging out and blocking the sidewalk. We like simple solutions to problems and this is a pretty simple and effective solution.  Except when the shoestring disappears. And that happens about every other month.

The guests waiting for me to open the gate had noticed.  They shook their heads as they wondered what might be the reason for this grand theft shoestring.

“Some people just take for takings sake,” one cynical guest offered.

“You gotta be real low to have to take a shoestring,” a more compassionate guest observed.

“Maybe he didn’t even know what he was doing,” offered another guest as he circled his index finger around his ear, “You know, some people aren’t all together out here.”

I said, “Maybe he needed a shoestring for his shoe, or to fashion a belt for his pants.”  I also thought, maybe the person had a grievance against Manna House and taking the shoestring was a small act of resistance.

The speculations of the guests were as valid as mine.  Any one of those reasons might fit this month’s theft or account for previous thefts. None of us really knew why the shoestring was gone. I did know I needed to replace the shoestring, and so I did. 

I went inside, found an old worn out shoe discarded in the trash, and took its shoestring.  I was pretty happy the shoestring was black; it would be less noticeable on the gate, and so less likely to disappear anytime soon.  I went back outside, attached the shoestring to the gate, and we were back in business.

Manna House is in a neighborhood where people live on a shoestring. Their resources are thin, as thin as a shoestring (which is the likely origin of the phrase). 

Such poverty wears people down.  A guest collapsed this morning from the heat, from being homeless, and from being very sick. An ambulance was called. We hope he will have a few days in the hospital.  He’s become very thin living on a shoestring.

We are worried about our guests who live outside as the temperatures spike into the upper nineties with thick humidity. Even the guests who do have housing might be at risk. Shoestring living does not include air conditioning.

Shoestring living really cannot even assume having a shoestring.