brett from minnesota.

The famous artist/writer, William Morris, once said that: "The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life." Lately, I was re-introduced to this concept thanks to a very interesting encounter that I had with Brett from Minnesota. Allow me to explain:

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to travel to one of my favorite cities in order to witness the marriage of a life-long friend to his eternal sweetheart. Needless to say, the simplistic beauty of their festivities left me, as well as many others, without words to describe its significance, especially, I am sure, in their own lives, let alone in mine. From blood-red rose petals scattered to and fro to locally-famous and utterly delicious sugar cookies that even Zeus himself would give up his throne for, my dear friend and his wife embellished our minds with a portrait of what potential lies within the first steps of true love. 

[Congratulations again to both of you and may you find happiness in each other's company] 

After saying my ciao(s) and adios(es) to my long-time friends, I subtly began my trek back to where I currently live in order to face the reality of school/work/goals/deadlines/projects/etc. once again. After stopping by a trusted gas station for a quick petro fill, I entered the on-ramp of the freeway to suddenly find my vision catching something in the distance: it was yellow with a hint of red, skinny, somewhat tall, and quite noticeably hairy. As I sped past the object, I noticed that it was a gnarly-bearded man in a yellow sweatshirt carrying nothing but a small red duffle-bag and a worn-out sleeping bag. Now, let me ask you: have you ever had those moments when you know that you should do something, but you can't seem to convince your conscience that it is worth your time or that it is the right thing to do? To take that even farther: have you ever had that happen and then contemplate it for so long that by the time you make a decision to do whatever it is that you felt like you needed to do, the moment is too far gone? Well, that's exactly what happened to me...or so I thought.

It only took me a good 3/4 of a mile after passing the hairy figure on the side of the road to convince myself to at least pull over to continue feeling out the situation, rather than driving farther and farther away from it. Needless to say, my shoulder angel barely beat out the shoulder devil in whatever skirmish it was they they were going through. Before I knew it, my truck was in reverse, traveling against traffic on the side of the road, in hopes of eventually finding that my intuitions were right. 

As I neared where the man was walking, he suddenly began to sprint towards me as he naturally knew what my vehicle's awkward behavior meant: a ride. I opened the door, helped place his things in the back of my truck, and then shook the cold and homeless hand of Brett from Minnesota. 

"Where are you headed?" I asked. 

"I'm eventually trying to get back to Minnesota. But for right now, I'm just trying to make it as far North as I can get," he replied.

"That's the direction I'm heading, so I'll take you as far as I can."


The next three and a half hours were nothing close to lonely or quiet. Without hesitation, we began drilling each other with questions. We shared stories. We related experiences. I think that the only time that there wasn't  an attempted conversation was when "Simple Man" by Lynard Skynard came on the radio and Brett said that he used to love listening to that song: so, of course, we respected the moment with silent mouths, but very active ears. 


[now to the point that I'd like to make regarding details]


Whenever conversation between Brett from Minnesota and I did seem to dwindle a little bit, he would ask me very peculiar questions. I noticed that he was constantly looking at my truck's interior, its content, and, come to find out, its usefulness. For example, I had on the opposite side of me a bottle of water. He must have caught a small glimpse of plastic cap or something and said, "I see you have some water there. Would you mind if I borrowed a little bit from you?" He slowly unzipped his small, red duffle-bag and pulled out a blue water container. As I filled his container up to the brim, he told me the story of how he found it: under a park bench outside the airport in Houston, TX (yet another simple observation of life's details). A little while later, he asked, "What kind of shoes are those that you have on? They look like they would last quite a while." I told him how I have had them for almost a year and a half and that they have shown very little, if any signs of wearing. He then presented me with yet another simple observation as he noticed the fence alongside the freeway that surrounded cattle grazing lazily in the valley. "That fence looks like it could use some work. Ya know, I put up fence for a rancher in Texas for a while. I bet I could fix up that fence and get paid a decent amount of cash for what I'd do."


I hope that you see the point that I am making. It's amazing how easily we take things for granted when they aren't a matter of day-to-day survival. Brett from Minnesota has been homeless for almost 7 years now simply due to a series of unfortunate events. However, over the past 7 years, I think that he has learned to find "life" in the details.

(I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to meet him and I hope him the best wherever he is) 

Whether or not we're homeless, poor, rich, fat, tall, blonde, left-handed, etc. we must never forget to notice and be grateful for the simple details of life: having all of the buttons on a button-up shirt, a kool-aid-covered-mouth-stained smile of a child, or even an untied shoe-lace. If we can but take genuine interest in the details of life, we will, as William Morris stated, find the true secret of happiness. In my experience, I have seen that there are two types of people that engulf themselves in the details of life: 1) homeless people [or simply people that do not regularly enjoy the "pastries" of life's bakery] and 2) photographers. I would challenge each of us to spend time with one of these two types of people and just observe the things that they see and how excited they are for life's simplicities.


Here's to the details of life.




Cheers.