If sadness were a contagious disease

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If sadness were a contagious disease, I would have caught it from Michael Martin.

He was asleep in a downtown Nashville McDonalds when I woke him up to ask if he needed a sleeping bag or tent. He cried as he told me that he has horrible anxiety and that his medication was stolen. He then said that the person he was sharing a campsite with stole all that he had.

Leo F. Buscaglia, a former professor in the Department of Special Education at the University of Southern California once stated, “Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”

I listened as he poured out words he had been holding back. Some of the sentences thrown together by the soon to be 40 year old were that he misses his mother whom he once lived with. Evidently, she sold her home and is now living with a family member.

After handing him a tent and a sleeping bag, Michael shook my hand about three times. He was able to release the words that he thought no one heard.

I have noticed it sometimes rubs people the wrong way when I say that it is not our job to judge the stories we may hear from others. It is not for us to decide their twisted reality for that is how they may have interpreted their past – despite what other family members or friends witnessed. It is not for us to decide if the truth is behind their lies or if their lies lead to their truth.

American novelist Ernest Hemingway said, “When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.”

If you feel the urge to help someone, all you have to do is listen and not speak a word. Simply listen and it can change a life. If you decide to argue what they tell you – it will get you nowhere.

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Albert is Sober

On a cool May morning he quietly sat next to the sidewalk in front of a McDonalds in Nashville. As cars pulled away with their breakfast, he would smile and give a wave. But, I wanted to know more about him than his simple wave.

As we talked he would lean his head back as if that helped to recall old memories. “I started drinking when I was 2 years old,” he told me. Unable to believe him I had to ask if he meant 2, as in the number after 1. He smiled and reconfirmed, “2.”

“I’m from Mississippi and my parents were cotton farmers. When I was 2 (in 1955) they’d feed me a shot of whiskey and I’d fall asleep while they worked the fields,” he explained.

He gave me insight into his life and told me he eventually landed in Memphis, TN and got married. His wife died in the not so far away past. After she passed away he moved to Nashville in search of employment and sobriety. He went through a program in LaVergne, Tennessee where he got sober, but the employment didn’t last. But, he has been sober for 8 months now.

Albert is 64 years old and sober for one of the first times in his life, which is huge.

"The best way out is always through."- Robert Frost

Joe Moved to Nashville

Joe moved to Nashville for work with his wife. They once lived in Murray, Kentucky. After the loss of a job and the break-up of his marriage, Joe is homeless.

“People think we make tons of money out here holding a sign, that’s not true – we don’t,” he told me. “I gotta go to the bathroom, but they won’t let me use their bathroom because I’m homeless,” Joe said while pointing at McDonalds.

While he may not be a paying customer of the Nolensville Pike restaurant, customers buy him meals from time to time. When I met him, he had just finished eating a Big Mac that a customer bought for him. He was telling me how good it was. 

It cost me one McDonalds Value Meal

It cost me a McDonalds value meal for this photo. When he saw the camera, he told me it would cost me a good meal to take his picture. I asked where he was going to get that good meal and he smiled real big and said, “McDonalds [pointing to his right].” I then asked, “How much will a good meal cost?” He laughed a little as his eyes grew larger, “$5 will get me a real good meal there.” He reeled me in with his smile as I gave him a $5 bill.

I saw this man sitting at the back of what use to be a motel that now serves as a low income apartment. The rooms are tiny and the floors concrete. Each room has a small bathroom, just like you would imagine in an old motel. The tiny spaces rent for $550 per month, but serve a vital purpose in getting people of the street. It’s all the room that this man who moved to the Nashville area from New York needs.

In New York, he paid over $900 per month for an apartment that was similar in size. He moved here about two years ago to be near his children who live in the same complex.

“A little bit of mercy makes the world less cold and more just.” - Pope Francis

We all have a job

Throughout the morning, this homeless man in New York opens the door for McDonalds guest. He stands on the ready holding the door open with his foot as he sees guest about to exit. To him, this is his job.

“Every man is a hero if he strives more for others than for himself alone.” ― Lloyd Alexander

Location: McDonald's 972 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10018