Shelter

Hey Qween interviewed Mayhem Miller this week. She was talking about coming out to her religious parents and as is the case with a lot of religious kids, they didn't accept it.

When she was 18, she got into a huge fight with her dad and knew she could never go back. She talked about going out to the club and just dancing and dancing, trying not to think about what would happen when the club closed. When it did, she headed out into the street, thinking she'd just try to find someplace to lay down and figure out what to do.

Fortunately, a friend of hers drove by and found out what was happening. He took her to the store and bought the basic items needed for someone to get by and told her to stay with him for the time being. Mayhem could name every single item he bought and did so with a voice full of grateful wonder.

I cried at this point. Shelter and acceptance are so vital to our existence as people. Shelter isn't just about the roof over your head. It's also about the sense of safety, of belonging, that everyone needs. A tube of toothpaste is common and to most of us, just some mundane item that we pick up to perform a function of basic hygiene. But the tube of toothpaste her friend bought for Mayhem was, at that moment, everything. It was part of her safety items, part of her acceptance into his home. It was part of what kept her going.

Again, again, and always, I will say, kindness is the greatest form of anarchy. Selfishness is our default. Violence is common. But kindness, even the smallest act of it, is transformative, beautiful, and imprints on people in ways beyond what we ever intended.