a different read

Today I picked up a book unlike any I have ever read before. It is a documentary called Down to this by Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall. I am only about seventy pages into it, but it definitely has me intrigued. It is about one man's experience living for one year one Toronto's inner-city streets. He was raised with every privilege, and yet he was compelled to take this drastic step in his life, and obviously he has turned it into a book.

He is slowly revealing his motivations for making this move as the book progresses, I won't reveal anything that I have discovered to this point in the off chance that you are interesting in picking this book up, but I will say that it certainly does provide some first hand insight into life on the streets.

There is one quote that has particularly stood out to me.

"If it is true that absolute power corrupts absolutely, then so does powerlessness"

In these words the author is describing how powerlessness has pushed him to do things that his convictions would never allow under 'normal' circumstances. Activities such as: accepting welfare, begging, or even to stealing all became reality when he was pushed to the brink of powerlessness.