For some reason, I found my self wide awake just a few minutes after midnight.  For the next few hours, my mind raced hither and yon, thinking of all the years that followed a very close call with death in 1998.  THAT had been my wake up call, but I did not listen.  Instead, after the memories of that event faded, I went back to being the same old me.  Thinking of promotions that would bring even greater influxes of money that would allow me to buy another expensive fountain pen, that high-end watch I always wanted, the next computer game (that robbed my family not only of money, but also my time), the camera body I upgraded every two years (sometimes sooner) with something newer, or all the lenses I told myself I “needed” for my photography.  As a well-paid expat, I was living in a bubble and I remained there… comfortably numb, year, after year, after year.  It was not until I had the opportunity to spend three months away from all the “distractions” and “noise” of that bubble that all this became clear, however.  We spent much of that time in Redding, California (16% unemployment, including too many homeless Veterans recently returned from Afghanistan and Iraq who were, quite literally, begging in the streets).  I encountered very similar “real life” during my 2 1/2 week exploration on historic Route 66, people not worried about the next big screen 3D HD TV, but trying to figure out how to feed themselves and their loved ones that day.  Take the photograph you see before you.  While exploring this particular abandoned building, less than a couple of miles from the stadium in St. Louis where the Cardinals and the Rangers had played just the night before, I met a homeless man, a recently returned Veteran who’s been forgotten.  He had set up camp (a tent) just out of view of this shot.  If you think he had NOTHING, you’d be right.  Well, almost nothing.  He had faith and he had pride.  It’s why he raised the Star-Spangled Banner for all to see.  He may have been forgotten, but he never forgot why he risked his life over there; he served the cause of greater things, and he still did, and may God bless him abundantly.  Those three months outside the bubble changed me, and I’m never looking back, but what I will do is share things that I saw and experienced during that time (when I feel compeled to do so), in hopes that it helps someone else out there get “REAL” sooner than the 45 years it took me.  All I ask of you right now, is that you do one completely selfless act today for another (it doesn’t have to be big, it just has to be selfless).  That’s it.
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