What Has Mike Learned

So Monday night I was serving meals at the Simpson Housing Project for Women. I've been there about 1.75 years and so been blessed to know many of the staff and regulars. 80% of the ladies there are unfortunately caught in a bad cycle of abuse, drugs, alcohol, etc. 20% are there temporarily and working to move on. Some cases just break my heart. Like the 65 year old Norwegian Lutheran grandma from your corner Lutheran church that woke up from her surgery and couldn't remember anything except playing in the church bell choir and is alone and so has no one to help her.

Monday I spoke at length with a mid-40 year old pretty lady (not sure of name but I'll call her Katlin) who always seems to be nursing a bruised eye, as if someone punched her. This is the third month I've seen her like this. She enters the shelter with a purposeful stride and angry shadow so it's unclear to me how to engage her. Last month I tried sitting next to her and attempted to engage in some small talk and she basically told me I was in her space. I returned to silence eating my meal and she began to ask me questions about myself so I'd answer as quietly and unassumingly as I could.

This month people asked me to join them at their table and I sat across from her Katlin, still sporting the remains of a bruised eye. After some general discussion with everyone there the crowd filtered down to Katlin, Mirium (co-worker, climbing partner) and myself. Katlin arose from her dour expression and started asking me questions about my climbing, and computer hacking jobs that I told her about last month. Katlin smile was so engaging and pleasant. She was very chatty and kept asking us questions about endurance, climbing at Taylors Falls, skills required to execute hacking attacks, etc. Katlin was smart, really smart. Katlin had a thirst for knowledge. I believe that Mirium was her buffer zone between me and her quest for knowledge. She felt safe speaking with me as long as Mirium joined in the conversation.

I asked Katlin why she was asking these questions, how did she know what to ask, if she was in the field, etc. She simply said "I like reading". Then she started to explain her concern with the convergence of data and communication networks with the introduction of the Apple Iphone. She explained that since the Iphone was basically a computer, it sits as a digital gateway between data networks and telephone networks. She pointed out the if any vulnerabilities exist on the Iphone, a virus could exploit that vulnerability and would propagate throughout both the data and telephone networks shutting down all communications.