Nowhere Boy

He was just 17 years old. Long thick curly man of hair surrounded his rather spot covered, flaking, greasy skin. With two silver colored piercings through his bottom lip and two huge ones in his ears almost big enough to poke a finger through. Each day was the same for nowhere boy. He would wake up in his dirty, small bedsit where his kitchen would share his toilet area, pull on his jeans, throw on a t-shirt, pick up his iPod, plug in  his white earphones then with his jeans hanging half way down across his backside he'd walk into town, sit on his bench by the canal with his equally scruffy pals and whistles at the girls as they walked by. He openly said this was his favorite kind of day, he didn't like the idea of work or working and would say all of this with a suspicious looking smile across his face. As I watched him on TV, as I listened to him on TV, as I looked upon his manner and way on TV at his character being beamed into my lounge I judged and addressed nowhere boy based on the 50 minutes of TV being thrown at me. So part of the TV show called 'living with the Amish' he was taken to the USA where the Amish communities lived (The Amish are a fundamentalist  Christian community) with another 5 teenager's. It was there after being lovingly looked after, trained, spoken with, taught, guided and laughed and smiled at his reality was slowly revealed. Nowhere boy had no father Nowhere boy's mother was in prison. Nowhere boy had brought up his two siblings on his own from the age of 14. Nowhere boy had lost his brothers to care homes and was now living from care home to care home only to end up in a grubby bedsit all alone. He revealed more. A human being that needed loved, held, hugged and to be treated like a human. I find it interesting how the confines, the conditioning and the ways of Zoomanity have us thinking in very set ways. We make judgment's based on a moments glance, on ideas and precepts that things should or must be a certain way. We make decisions based on what we see there and then. On what we hear and what limited information we get. That's the way we do it. Adults that surround us do it all the time. They see a vagrant walking the street but rarely think there could be a big picture behind the life of the vagrant. When living in the city in Manchester I would talk to the same homeless guy each day. Eventually I asked him... how come someone clearly intelligent was living like this with his hand outstretched holding an old, filthy Starbucks cup. The story he shared was remarkable and I never saw him in the same light ever again. The young guy on TV, his story was remarkable to say the least. His mother in prison for burning down someones home then abandoned to the hard uncaring world to look after his siblings at just 14 in central London. It was clear by his own admission and his  actions he craved a father. Yet here was I making a judgment on him based on just 50 minutes TV. There is a lesson of course. The lesson is who is making decisions for us on a daily bases? Is it you? Is it the conditioning of Zoomanity and the endless repeatist patterns of others? This kid on TV, I get the feeling that his visit to the Amish will be the making of him. Being shown love, care, compassion and given the time of another human. I hope so I really hope so. Next time you see a nowhere boy, a nowhere person a nowhere man just remember this person ash a bigger story, a life that is led to where he or she is right now. Compassion and understanding can reach a long way inside the heart of another. And if they walk away, go away and carry on their life, that's their choice, they are simply the fruit of what has gone before them. Yes, of course they can change but only when the sees have taken root in their pain ridden heart and in their own time, not yours or anyone elses time. I'd love to know what you think about this. Author, Speaker and Writer of Escape from Zoomanity, Vol 1.