It's time for the fourth installment in our series of brief on-the-street interviews and snapshots taken around the Lower Haight by our friend Dijon of Souls of Society.
(You can catch up on the first three installments here, here, and here.)
“What are you passionate about?”
“Making cool shit!”
“I like making music, I like building companies, I like building teams, I like working with people, I like working with crafts and making replicas of the Millenium Falcon.”
“What brought you to San Francisco in the first place?”
“Well, I lived in the East Bay until ’85. In ’81 I joined the Navy, did 6 years as a Navy corpsman. My boat was the U.S.S. Mars. Got my training as nurse, I’ve worked in every hospital in the city except Chinese and the V.A. ’85 moved in the neighborhood proper. Both my kids were born here. I can walk to anything, everything is here, I love it!”
“What’s one of the craziest things that’s happened to you in your time here?"
“Never been robbed, never been broken into. Most of the crazy things have been me intervening when someone needs healthcare. Either they’ve fallen down, or been stabbed or shot. Golden Gate Park, I was riding bikes with my son, he was probably 7 years old, I see this guy on the ground in front of the hall of flowers, someone else holding his arms up in the air. I know exactly what’s going on so I go over and say, ‘Your shoulder is dislocated, I’m an orthopedic nurse, I can put this back in.’ So I take my boot off, put the heel of my foot into his armpit, pull it out straight and turn. Boom, it’s back in. For the next week whenever I was at Mad Dog In The Fog, I couldn’t buy a beer.”
“Why’s that?”
“The guy had come to neighborhood and told them he was covering all beers for Chuck the Nurse. Taa daaa.”
“What goes around comes around huh? Pay it forward.”
“Pay it forward. Do what you can day to day.”
“I’m just a traveler, I wanna go to the East Coast next.”
“Where all have you been?”
“I’ve only been traveling for 2 years, I’ve only been on the west side for the most part. I been to Washington, Oregon, Cali, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, and Arizona.”
“Are you looking for anything in particular?”
“I just want to see the world.”
“I want to go back to Hawaii.”
“I heard there’s fuckin' trash barges that take you from here to Hawaii for 50 bucks. It’s like, you gotta sign a waiver and bring your own 2 weeks worth of food.”
“So it’s an ocean liner that you get to stowaway on?”
“Yeah, I’ve heard that from a few different people.”
“It started cuz I was trying to get out of somewhere…then I just started traveling.”
“Do you feel like you’ve learned anything on your travels that’s helped you grow as a person?”
“Definitely. I’ve grown a lot but I can’t think of any specific examples right now.”
“Well how are you doing today?”
“Today’s better than some, worse than others.”
"What's the most challenging thing you've had to overcome and what did you learn?"
"This is very intimate! Actually I had to reflect about this question very recently... but I don't want to answer because it is too personal. What I can tell you is that I am naturally very optimistic and I usually see 'le verre à moitié plein', the glass as half-full, which helps me a lot. Reflecting on that makes me think of a great quote from the Serenity prayer, about developing: 'The serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.' This is a great guiding principle for me."
"How many time have you fallen in love?"
"Again, this is an intimate question! For me, there are different kinds of love... there is love, and love. There is the love that is a kind of irresistible interest for someone that you don't know: you feel intrigued and fascinated and thrilled. It is a lot about imagination and mental construction I think.... And then there is the love when you know very well the other person. Then it is deep and safe, it is built on time, shared experiences, hours and hours that allow to understand how the other sees the world. To me, it is based on immense authenticity, respect and trust. The first form of love gives you the 'papillons dans le ventre', you know, the butterflies. The second form of love powerfully anchors you and make you grow up with high serenity."
