My Dear Friend and fellow musician ANDI REESE posted this.
On September 15th, I spent the day with musician and good friend Chris Church. He invited me to come along while he and his friend, Dan (who I had never met) filmed material for a video to a song from his soon-to-be-released CD, "Your Sun is About to Shine." I was down in Charleston with my husband while he piped at the Highland Games. That day, I had intended to hang out at the market by myself, have a good lunch and generally be a "bum," when Chris made me a better offer. I thought it would be good experience for me to see how people do these kinds of things in the unlikely event I would ever need to know (I know, wishful thinking!).
The tune he was working with was an upbeat-sounding song about depression and despair. He explained to Dan that he was looking for stark locations that suggested loneliness and poverty, like a stretch of railroad track just off East Bay near the aquarium. Or an impoverished segment of Meeting Street north of the main downtown area where people "with nothing to do" hang out or walk around, looking for something, anything, to happen. I took on the role of assistant, driving the car so Chris could "direct" and Dan could shoot. We drove up and down Meeting Street a couple times trying to be inconspicuous about who and what we filmed. Every now and then, someone would comment or yell out when they realized we were filming them. All this time, we were careful not to get stopped at light where someone who felt violated by our filming might object violently. Not a huge chance of that but it was strangely thrilling anyway.
Dan filmed a segment in a soccer field and serendipitously filmed a scene in which a small flock of pigeons passed behind Chris at just the right moment. We headed to the tracks and I earned my keep as we were leaving when I remembered to pick up the tripod Dan had set down earlier, making me feel less like third wheel and more like an invaluable asset.
When we finished at the tracks, we headed toward the Market area so we could find a roof-top restaurant location that Chris wanted to use. However, we couldn't find it so we drove a little bit more and found an alleyway that looked promising. Chris and Dan jumped out and I drove around the "block" a few times until they emerged at the street again. We decided to go down to the Market area to film Chris playing. We couldn't find a parking space that was convenient, so Chris directed me toward a spot where, if we got lucky, we'd find something that wouldn't involve a long walk on a hot, humid day. No luck.
Just as we were lamenting our bad fortune we saw a man, obviously homeless, lying on the street underneath a shopping cart. We pulled the car over and jumped out with cell phones in hand. There was no one else around that seemed to have responded to this situation. Chris immediately called 911 as Dan went to assess what had happened. I parked the car. The poor man was having a seizure in the middle of the intersection and we weren't sure if he had hit his head. He was frothing at the mouth, and there was a substantial puddle of drool running from the side of his chin onto the road where he lay. He was wearing a hospital bracelet that was dated a month earlier. His black plastic trash bag had a tear from which I could see what looked like fiber-fill (like what you'd see coming out of a gash in a sleeping bag or cheap pillow. The bag was closed at the top with a half-knot and it was still in the cart as it rested on top of his twitching body.
The situation not withstanding, I was impressed and amazed to watch my friends, two grown men, whom I had been laughing and joking with, often in crude and derogatory ways, respond to this poor man. Chris was holding his hand and trying to talk to him. Dan had been holding his head to keep him from banging it on the hard, hot pavement while his body seized. His head, Dan later said, was full of lice. Truly an example of what is right about our society… in the face of depression, despair and hopelessness, these two men showed a level of compassion that left me, the assistant, at a loss.
The EMS folks showed up in less than 3 minutes, took his vitals, and asked us a few questions about what had happened. We decided that we had done all we could do for the poor man and dismissed ourselves as they transferred him to a stretcher and loaded him on the ambulance. I watched as they loaded his bag of belongings onto the ambulance with him. I hoped they didn't just throw them away in fear of some infestation of parasites. He never regained consciousness, although I'm certain he did not pass away while we were with him.
I imagine they took him to the hospital. He probably received the best care that his money could buy. They probably released him back to the streets. I wonder if he cursed us, the ones who initiated "saving" him, for prolonging his existence. Was he angry or upset that, now, he didn't even have a shopping cart (which the EMS people left on the street corner) to carry his meager belongings. Or was he grateful that three total strangers cared enough to stop, call for help, hold his hand, cushion his head, see that he was safe, if only for a little while.
Dan rolled the camera and Chris walked past the ambulance as they were loading him in. Possibly a little opportunistic, but, after all, the song IS about despair and feelings of hopelessness. We went on our way. We stopped to find some water and some anti-bacterial hand sanitizer, just for good measure. We shook off the feelings of excitement from that adventure and finished filming. It was still hot outside.
I haven't seen the edits yet. But I hope Dan was able to work in the footage of the homeless man. He might not ever know what impact his existence had on others. Maybe to him, it was a life not worth recording or remembering. But I think there is purpose in everything, and I believe we happened upon him for a reason. I hope he got the medical help he needed. I hope he found a new shopping cart. I hope he is living life as he wishes, on his own terms. I hope his image will find permanence in the video and that we will not forget the experience, whatever meaning it has. I don't think this town's so broken after all.