Pride goeth...Day14...16 to go.

Pride goeth before destruction...and a haughty spirit before a fall."  Proverbs 16:18
I rarely quote the Bible, but today I found that this one proverb was very appropriate.  The reason being is that I have spent the majority of the morning digging for cans.  Starting early this morning and leading on late into the night, I am and will be digging through the garbage and filth for cans to turn in to further advance The Waiverly Projects and Winnie Mae's.  Pride goeth before destruction is pretty self explanatory.
I don't expect a lot of cash from my efforts.  It is more based on principle than anything else.  Looking at the facts aluminum is infinitely recyclable and it requires 95% less energy to recycle the cans than to find and process new aluminum.  Moreover, every ounce of aluminum that I get, that we bring in to be melted down, would have gone into regular trash; buried beneath tons of other garbage.  I mean it when I say that every ounce counts. 
I get some strange looks from this whole thing.  They are looks that I am sure that a lot of men and women get when they are on the street and they are not good.  They are looks of pity and revulsion.  How do many men and women on the street deal with that?   It takes some getting used to.  It takes some strength of the individual to look at how others perceive you, and work out how much of their perception feeds into who you are, and then to say their perception does not matter.  On a daily basis, you have to perceive yourself as a person of value or the streets will eat you alive.  Your pride must go.  You have to let go of your pride to ask for money, for food, for help.  Your pride must go.  When people look at me that way, as I emerge dirty and disheveled from behind the building, I want to scream that I am a highly educated man!!!  I speak 3 languages and I know a lot about wine!!!  I am a witty dinner companion!!!  I want to find them when this whole thing is over and say, see?  How many of us would lose our minds if we did not have ourselves to tell us we are people of value.  How many of us would be able to go on?