Just Listen

He could have talked for hours, never asking me for a penny. It was as if his sign was a disguise for friendship or connection. I simply tuned in at the right time. 

One of the things he talked about was his injured leg. He told me that he got bit by a spider and the aftermath landed him in the hospital.

Today, the spider bite is healing. However, he still has trouble walking for long distances as the pain radiates from the outside of his skin inward and down to his foot. 

“One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.”

— Bryant H. McGill

Different

LasVegas: It looks like a unique design from the funky 1970’s with wood to match a Frank Lloyd Wright home. Of course, Wright would have designed it to be a suspended square box, which is why I said designed in the 70’s.

The restaurant is called Mastro’s and it is known for both steak and seafood. As for the costs, a steak with two sides will set a guest back about $65.

Inside the restaurant is an automated sound environment with music or sounds pumped in to make you feel more alive. The JBL speakers powered by Crown Amplifiers are invisible to the guest, but the sound quality is far from lacking. Mastro’s has a total of 46 speakers.

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”

— Virginia Woolf

Without legs in Las Vegas

So… there I was in downtown LasVegas and there he was, propped up against a trash can unable to stand. I bent down to speak with him and he said, “You know why I don’t shave anymore (slight laugh), because I can’t stand tall enough to see the mirror.”

His wife was in his wheelchair about 10 feet away. She was not asking for money, just a loan cigarette. She was in the chair to rest as she is usually on foot all day as the two are homeless.

Both of his legs were amputated due to extensive cardiovascular disease. In some cases doctors are able to move veins from one location to another in order to allow for better blood flow. In other cases, that is not possible.

Sometimes it is not possible due to costs so amputation is done as a last resort on a visit to the emergency room. Other times, grants are available for those without insurance to have such surgeries completed - if it is caught in time. I do not know what occurred in this case, nor did I ask as it was in the past.

Author Shannon L. Alder once said, “Before you call yourself a Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu or any other theology, learn to be human first.” Interesting statement. While those beliefs named are nowhere similar to one another all have one item in common. Humans follow those religions.

If we could only see through titles and learn to talk to others suffering. Listen to others going through struggles - then perhaps harmony would be easier. Life may even be easier for this man without legs because more would stop with ideas on ways to help. Maybe those with different religions would then work to put ideas into action.

Rent is cheaper in Vegas

“On a good day I may make $60,” he told me while sitting in his motorized wheelchair in LasVegas.

Originally calling Southern California home he decided to make the move to LasVegas in the late 70’s. Later, he moved back to California for a short stay and then again made the trek to Vegas because he said it was cheaper to rent in the town of bright lights than Cali, “I pay $400 a month for my motel room.”

““On a good day I may make $60,” he told me while sitting in his motorized wheelchair in LasVegas.

Originally calling Southern California home he decided to make the move to LasVegas in the late 70’s. Later, he moved back to California for a short stay and then again made the trek to Vegas because he said it was cheaper to rent in the town of bright lights than Cali, “I pay $400 a month for my motel room.”

Las Vegas was and is a hard town that will make you pay for your inability to restrain your desires.... If you have a weakness, Las Vegas will punish you.”

— HAL ROTHMAN, Neon Metropolis

Looking at what most refuse to see

Everyone passed her by, most refusing to make eye contact. “Sir, have you got a cigarette,” she asked one man as he shook his head and continued. “Ma’am, do you have a smoke,” she asked a woman who refused to even acknowledge someone spoke to her. Never asking for money, she only wanted to continue her love affair with nicotine.

“We lived in Las Vegas back in 1978 and left… but we came back in the mid 90’s,” she told me while sitting in her husband’s wheelchair. “This is his,” she explained while pointing to a man sitting upright against a trash can. The woman then stated, “He has no legs – lost them both due to cardiovascular disease.”

I asked her what the dried blood on her forehead was from. “I tripped and fell, busted my head wide open. No one helped me, but the paramedics,” as she went into detail she talked about the ten stitches under her cap and how she spent 15 hours in the hospital.

Why do so many turn away from unpleasant, sad or dirty? Why do some refuse to take it all in as an effort to learn what others go through? Why does a mother or father not stop and talk when being spoken to as a way to teach a child courtesy should be offered to everyone until proven wrong. Then, perhaps courtesy should be offered again and even again.

“To change ourselves effectively, we first had to change our perceptions.” ― Stephen R. Covey (1932-2012). Dr. Covey died 5.5 hours away from where this woman sat quietly on the streets of Las Vegas. It was a bicycle accident that took the life of Dr. Covey at the age of 80 in Provo, Utah.

Addiction happens long before the injury

He sat quietly with his dog on a bridge over the bustling Las Vegas strip. Alone. His hat sat in front of his knee in hopes of those passing would drop a dollar to help him survive.

“I use to play professional poker,” he told me. As our conversation continued I realized it was not the poker that he lost to.

It was an accident that sent him to the hospital with a back injury. He then almost whispered as he told me that he was prescribed painkillers that he quickly grew addicted to. When the prescriptions ran out, the heroin began.

Methadone is his next step in life as he aims to get off of the heroin.

“My opinion: Opioid addiction happens because of previous trauma long before the injury that led to the prescription.”

— Scott Walker

Why do some grow addicted to drugs and alcohol while some do not? I do not know, but I can guess. That guess would be a previous trauma long before the injury.

The traumas could be any number of pains in life, from domestic violence to war. From child abuse to sex abuse. From witnessing a loved one murdered to watching a friend die a painful death. We all have our own trauma that we learn to medicate without proper help.

Once that medication wears off, the pain comes back greater than before. More detailed than first remembered. More real than reality.

“Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it.”

— J.K. Rowling

A room of her own

She shares only a bedroom with a local resident, but you would think she has a palace. When she describes that room, her eyes light up like a child inside a candy store for the first time.

Previously living on the streets of what some call “Sin City,” she has a special appreciation for clean sheets and a pillow to rest her head on at night.

It is interesting... Today we can look around while standing in a crowd of 1,000 at a large church and see smiling faces from every walk of life wearing their Sunday best. But inside, we are unable to tell what they hide.

Some of those that you see daily have a past that is more painful than your past. Some are struggling with current pain that is undeniably ugly, dark and scary… but they hide it in public to an extent that you would never know. I am not talking about their sins that they participate in outside of the church walls, I am talking about pains thrown at them.

American actor Will Smith once stated, “Never underestimate the pain of a person, because in all honesty, everyone is struggling. Some people are better at hiding it than others.” Truer words have never been spoken.

A Las Vegas Death on a Sidewalk

A Las Vegas Death on a Sidewalk: Her hands were swollen, her face like leather from the overly dramatic Nevada summers, her voice had a quiet whiskey sound to it and her hair a dirty blonde. Just behind her though, the shadow of a younger her… no lines, no age and perhaps a forgotten past. Her words were simple and thoughts non-complex.

She is tucked away on a Las Vegas side street, away from the eye of the public. Everything she owns is within an arm’s reach. Her makeshift home is the sidewalk of a closed down business next to a convenience store.

A bottle of urine sits next to her left leg, two empty cans of beer against the wall and an empty purse under her left arm. Behind her is a “Personal Belongings” bag from an area hospital.

“She wasted and grew so thin that she no longer was a little girl, but the shadow of a little girl. The flame of her life flickered so faintly that it appeared sufficient to blow at it to extinguish it. Stas understood that death did not have to wait for a third attack to take her and he expected it any day or any hour.”

— Henryk Sienkiewicz, "In Desert and Wilderness"

Broken Vegas

The faces on the streets of Las Vegas... some young, some old, some desperate, some excited.

Love Vegas or hate Vegas... you can see the painful side of it by simply walking out of your hotel.

“I only ever play Vegas one night at a time. It’s a hideous, gaudy place; it may not be the end of the world per se, but you can certainly see it from there.”

— Robin Williams

The Natural Wonder

“In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder which is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world. I want to ask you to keep this great wonder of nature as it now is. I hope you will not have a building of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel or anything else, to mar the wonderful grandeur, the sublimity, the great loneliness and beauty of the canyon. Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

An amazing state full of different

The area surrounding the Grand Canyon in Arizona is interesting on multiple levels. Nature supplies the region with thick firm plants, multicolored rocks filled with reds, browns, grays and even shades of green. The rock formations are massive, jagged, and far reaching. When you see them in person it is almost too hard to comprehend they are real.

Below the shadows of the rock mountains you will find vast fields and small homes or even huts every 10 to 20 miles. You may spot boats left to decay in a field, old cars or trailers. Farm animals are something you don’t see as much. Gardens and landscaping are equally rare.

The high school graduation rate in Arizona is not on par with the rest of the country. Arizona ranks number 44 on the list for having one of the lower graduation rates. On the flip side, Arizona residents seem to enjoy better health with a ranking of 28 on the list. They also rank at number 17 on the list for having the fewest hospital re-admissions.

Depending on where you live in the mountainous / desert environment you may receive notices from the National Parks Service to conserve water. One of those notices is in effect now.

Bottom line: A trip to Arizona is like a trip to a far away planet. It looks too unreal to be real. It is amazing in every way. It is beautiful yet strangely scarce.

The Valley of Fire

I took this photo this past Saturday in the "Valley of Fire" park just outside of Las Vegas in the Mojave Desert.

The formations of red rocks are artistic in the way they bend, drop and overlap one another.

On a side note: The Valley of Fire was used as the secret headquarters for the fictional black militant helicopter known as Airwolf. The TV show aired on CBS from 1984 to 1987.

Hoover Dam

The Hoover Dam in Nevada along the dividing border of Arizona is a massive structure that was built between 1931 and its opening of 1936. It was always a work in progress, so I am not sure anyone could factually state that the construction ended on a particular date.

During the construction of the dam, 96 men died in accidents that were labeled as “Industrial Accidents.” It has been rumored that some bodies are beneath the concrete walls of the dam, however that has never been proven. If bodies were left in the concrete, it would actually give way to decay. In other words, it is likely to be a tale as opposed to a truth. The Department of Interior says that no one is buried in the dam.

Enough concrete was poured to make the dam to actually build a two lane road from Seattle, Washington to Miami, Florida, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior. The project took 21,000 workers to construct the dam.

The goal was to generate electricity and to tame the Colorado River. Taming the river would prove to be as hard on engineers as it was on a jokey to tame his horse long enough to make it around the tract to claim victory.

“We are here to celebrate the completion of the greatest dam in the world, rising 726 feet above the bedrock of the river and altering the geography of a whole region: we are here to see the creation of the largest artificial lake in the world-115 miles long, holding enough water, for example, to cover the whole State of Connecticut to a depth of ten feet; and we are here to see nearing completion a power house which will contain the largest generators and turbines yet installed in this country, machinery that can continuously supply nearly two million horsepower of electric energy.”

— Speech by Roosevelt at the Dedication of Boulder Dam, September 30, 1935

5 AM Sounds Alive in Vegas

Inside a Las Vegas Casino at 5 AM sounds very much alive, but a quick stroll will prove it is really a ghost town. 

The History Channel reported, “During the 1950s and 1960s, mobsters helped build the Sahara, the Sands, the New Frontier and the Riviera. Money from organized crime combined with funds from more respectable investors—Wall Street banks, union pension funds, the Mormon Church and the Princeton University endowment.”

“Las Vegas was and is a hard town that will make you pay for your inability to restrain your desires.... If you have a weakness, Las Vegas will punish you. ”

— Hal Rothman, UNLV history professor

The ending as opposed to the start

In 1999 he was 36 years old, which is when he decided to make a cross country trip from Chicago towards the West Coast. Evidently, he had jobs lined up in the construction trade. But, when he arrived in Las Vegas the jobs had been taken over by others.

The massive blow took an emotional toll. He now works a mix of day labor jobs and collects cans to recycle. He has lived on the streets of Vegas since 1999.

“In Las Vegas, nothing ends very well.”

— Walter Wykes, American playwright

Welcome to Vegas - Good Luck

He is originally from Los Angeles, California, but a number of years ago decided to make the move to Las Vegas because rent is cheaper. After arriving, he was unable to find work as an artist and soon lost his eye right eye.

“How did you lose the vision in your eye,” I asked him. With a breath of cool morning air he said, “I had a microscopic infection in it and before I knew it, I couldn’t see.”

We then talked about his artwork and how it is much harder for him to draw now as opposed to before due to the blindness.

I pointed at his shopping cart, “Is everything you own right there?” He looked towards the ground with a frown, “That’s it… that’s everything.”

The 59 year old wants to get an apartment as soon as possible. Until that day happens, he will live on the streets of Vegas.

"Vegas means comedy, tragedy, happiness and sadness all at the same time." - Artie Lange, American comedian

U.S. Navy Veteran

He served our country in the United States Navy while stationed on the USS Alamo. The old ship was launched into service in 1956 and has traveled to Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Philippines, just to name a few stops.

After getting out of the Navy, he returned to his hometown of California where he picked up his love for singing. His musical career took him to Las Vegas where he performed with bands on a regular basis.

Following that dream of music, he made the trek from the West to the South landing in the Music City (Nashville). Over the years he has sang at bars and musical venues throughout the country.

While he has traveled the world as a sailor and traveled the U.S. as a singer one thing has been a constant battle... Diabetes. That battle continues with the recent amputation of both his right and left legs.

He is not homeless, but calls a motel room near the heart of Nashville home.