"I'm from Memphis, but decided I'd come to Nashville for a while," he said while looking towards the sky. He then smiled as we turned to walk away saying, "God Bless Ya'll."
"Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier." -Mother Teresa
David lives in Victoria, Canada and as he was walking out of a Japanese Sushi restaurant he looked at me and described how they wouldn't give him any leftover food for the night. I looked at the sign on the door which read, "CLOSED."
He said, “I really wanted a bowl of noodles, that's all.” I told him that I would buy him a bowl of noodles if he knew where another Japanese or Chinese restaurant was located. I then followed him for the next three blocks simply observing those we passed at about 9:45 on a Friday night. Some would move to the far opposite side while others refused to make eye contact. David never noticed, but I couldn't help but to notice.
We finally arrived and as we walked in the woman behind the counter handed David a menu. He quickly scanned over it unable to make a decision. I told the employee that he would simply like a large bowl of noodels and David jumped in and said, “With seafood on it, like shrimp.”
I paid and told David it would take about 10 minutes for his order to be prepared. He followed me outside and I snapped a couple of photos of him.
As I turned to walk away David said, “Wait, let me go inside to make sure you paid.” I laughed and said, “Good idea, let's double check.” We headed back in and he asked the hostess, “Did he already pay for my noodles?” She smiled and told him, “Yes, he sure did.” David then shook my hand and thanked me.
Attorney Herb Cohen stated, "Care, but not that much." In other words, you have to care what you are negotiating for, but not enough to get emotionally involved. You have to be able to walk away. As you walk away, you will likely be stopped by the opposite side of negotiating and that often equals winning. I think those are them most simple words to remember when negotiating.
Five people with three from Tennessee, one from New York and one from Colorado... One question asked: "What is the first thought into your head when you hear the words Racial Tension?”
“In the biological sense, race does not exist.”
I met Charles in 2015 while out with my friend Jerry in downtown Nashville, TN.
“My father committed suicide in 2007, several months later… my mom committed suicide, I wish I knew why – I want to figure it out, it would help me – I wish I were there, I could have helped her,” he told me as if he were desperate to find answers.
As I continued to speak with Charles he said that he too thinks about suicide. He then rolled up his sleeve to show me a large scar on his wrist where he attempted to kill himself.
“When people kill themselves, they think they're ending the pain, but all they're doing is passing it on to those they leave behind.” ― Jeannette Walls
According to the Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network, suicide numbers have climbed since 2006, of course our population has also increased, so to get a true idea of the statistics, you would have to look at the percentages, which do indeed show a slight increase.
In 2006, there were 866 suicides in the Volunteer State, which is 14.4% of the population per every 100,000 residents. In 2010, there were 932 suicides or 14.7% per 100,000 residents. In 2015, the Health Department recorded 1,065 suicides or a rate of 16.1% per every 100,000 residents.
People don’t commit suicide because they want to die, they commit suicide because they want to stop the pain, stop the voices they may hear, stop the brokenness in their life… this first has to be understood to simply prevent someone taking their own life.
“Did you really want to die?"
"No one commits suicide because they want to die."
"Then why do they do it?"
"Because they want to stop the pain.”
― Tiffanie DeBartolo, How to Kill a Rock Star
Charles is from Knoxville, Tennessee but moved to Nashville after the death of his parents. He told me, “Someone stole all of my medication, they even took my blood pressure medicine.” He said they also took his medication for his Bi-Polar Disorder, “I have been off of it for 3-weeks,” he said.
Suicide and mental health or mental illness are closely tied together, as realized by medical experts.
In 2016, the Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network announced the idea of “Tennessee’s Zero Suicide Initiative.” While the idea of zero suicides sounds great, it is an unrealistic goal to strive for – being realistic and understanding the depths of mental illness could be a better idea? Could be.
To be honest, such an idea of ending suicide may give way to less news stories about suicide and less information on the suicide aftermath that families suffer. It concerns me that looking at stopping the rates will possibly give some residents the false idea that suicide numbers are on the decrease, which will possibly allow a family member in the direct line of helping a loved one to have the thought that “It” won’t happen.
Despite my views on “Ending suicide,” the organization is moving forward with their efforts and in fairness, they are putting out more brochures. But are brochures going to cause an impact? My thought is an overwhelming “No.” Education is needed, but so is more accessible help in the field of mental health. We need experts to hit campsites of those suffering, we need home visits for those too depressed to get out of bed, we need more help and we need more volunteers.
As for Charles, I have not seen him since 2015. I do not know how his current mental state is today, nor do I know where he may be living. I just hope he is… living.
He was sitting alone in a dark alley with only the light from a nearby road creeping onto his right side and the left barely lit by an open restaurant door that lead to the busy kitchen. He was crouched down on a milk crate eating a tray of noodles, likely from a cook inside the restaurant.
I could not understand much of what he had to say, but he was very talkative so I simply listened to what sounded like meaningless chatter. But, it made me wonder what has caused him to become this way? Did it start before he became homeless while working as a diesel mechanic or did it happen due to one extreme stressor in life or multiple stressful situations with negative outcomes?
Have you ever thought about how unnerving our world is today? So many people fall into emotional and physical disrepair because of an inability to handle the things around us. Politics, natural disasters, physical ailments, declining health due to age or bad habits, addiction, loss of employment, false ideas of how religion should be verses how it is viewed in our churches, fear of relationships – I could continue typing for hours naming things that bog us down. But, why do we let these things get under our skin?
The simple answer is that not all of us do – some are better equipped with handling today’s times.
A Yale University study found that some people had brains that were able to process stressors better than others. What was interesting is that the study allowed researchers to see which three areas of the brain responded to stress during a functional MRI (fMRI).
The Yale study saw a decrease in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) area of the brain at first and then a huge increase in that same area by most of their study participants. That huge increase could be seen on scans that were overseen by doctors and scientist. For those that had the hyper increase of activity, it meant that their brains were blocking the stressors or protecting the person from stress.
The ventromedial prefrontal cortex area is involved in brain management, in a way. It is utilized when dealing with self-related processing or figuring out when to feel stress or not to feel stress. This area of the brain also causes disruptions in individuals with autism and those who function poorly in social settings. In other words, the vmPFC is not building that wall to block the stress as it does in some people.
Basically, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex either goes into overdrive to protect the brain from extreme emotional response, or fails to go into overdrive (fails to build that wall), which equals a flood of stress and emotional reactions to the stressor.
The Yale study found that those whose brain failed to guard against the stressor, they likely had an increased risk of binge drinking, binge eating or other self-destructive behavior after being stressed.
So if you react poorly to stress and find yourself acting out in self-destructive behaviors after a hard day, your ventromedial prefrontal cortex area is not guarding your brain. A quick fix for this problem is not available, but it is now the spotlight of more research.
For those who experience one extreme stressors daily, weekly or even monthly – these stressors add up and cause serious health issues. Those health issues can include high blood pressure, diabetes or heart disease which can lead to more stress. More stress then leads to depression, anxiety or the onset of an underlying mental illness that did not make itself known until that stress in life continued to build up. So, if not tackled in the beginning, it can quickly become uncontrollable for an individual.
The end result of accumulated stress that is not handled properly… we break.
“Stress is the trash of modern life-we all generate it but if you don't dispose of it properly, it will pile up and overtake your life.” ― Danzae Pace
Bonnaroo 2017: Hundreds of people busily walked past them in the midnight hours, but they never saw one. With a small flashlight and the light of a cellphone, the two quietly enjoyed a romantic meal a minute past midnight. In the background, the sounds of Red Hot Chili Peppers fell over them.
“Every great love starts with a great story...” ― Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook
This fella was selling handmade jewelry by the roadside in Mexico. It appeared as if he had been there all day when I saw him at about 4pm. So, I gave him a large pizza. He chowed down instantly. Love doing little unexpected stuff like that.
His name is Terry Johnson and he's from Memphis, Tennessee. When asked why he ended up in Nashville, “To become an entertainer,” he told me. “I’m a song writer and musician,” he said with a smile and a tip of his cap.
Terry, like many of the people who call the streets of Nashville home, has dreams and sees himself as being bigger than the alleys he sleeps in.
“I’ve been told I look like Tim McGraw and I’ve also been told I look like Dwight Yoakam,” he said as I was walking away.
French-German theologian, organist, philosopher, and physician Albert Schweitzer once stated, “There are two means of refuge from the misery of life — music and cats.”
Well, the music I agree with. The cats? Oh well.
He was sitting on a discarded Pepsi crate behind a gas station in downtown Nashville smoking a Pall Mall Cigarette and drinking a Bud Ice tall boy.
“I was clean for 22 months,” he told me while looking to the side as if he were afraid he would disappoint me. “I lost it though, lost my job and lost my truck that I worked for,” he said after telling me that he was addicted to heroin. As for a place to live, he lost that too because he was living with his sponsor who couldn’t risk his sobriety.
He told me that he overdosed on heroin one month ago and literally died. He was later revived after being transported to the hospital and given a second chance at this thing we call life.
Former CBS Reporter Dan Rather once did heroin for a story. He later stated, “I had someone at the Houston police station shoot me with heroin so I could do a story about it. The experience was a special kind of hell. I came out understanding full well how one could be addicted to 'smack,' and quickly.”
"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." - Socrates, Greek Philosopher (469/470-399 BCE)
He was dressed as The Starchild (Stanley) from the group KISS. I never fully understood the characters, but realized they understood performance as their costumes and acts were interesting to say the very least.
I love finding interesting people to photograph. This man was at a KISS concert waiting to walk into the arena to watch the band that has a history dating back to 1973. Of course, the year was nowhere close to ’73. I captured this shot in 2015.
The band was formed by Paul Stanley (Starchild) and Gene Simmons (The Demon) in ’73 and they are the only two musicians who stayed with the band throughout the years. Any other name was simply passing through stardom.
Today, Paul Stanley is 64 and Gene Simmons is 66.
"Whenever anybody comes to me with a way that I can give something back, it would be ungrateful at this point in my life to not say yes." - Paul Stanley
When I see Shorty he makes me smile. It never fails, he always says something funny no matter how bad of a day he may be having.
“I got a new girlfriend,” he told me with a smile. I asked, “What’s her name?” “Doll, she spells it D-O-L-L,” he replied. I started laughing and then he started laughing. “Doll is her real name,” I asked. “Yes, D-O-L-L [laughter],” he responded.
“What do you want a meaning for? Life is a desire, not a meaning.” - Charlie Chaplin
"I always sit here, these folks have really helped me (pointing towards a local business in Manhattan)." "I have heart problems, but I'm getting better," he said with a smile.
"Fall seven times and stand up eight." -Japanese Proverb
Julia Child once said, "I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate."
As I snapped a photo of him he said, "I use to be a professional photographer, I traveled all over the world." He spoke very clearly. No mumbling, pronouncing every word as if he were reading from a dictionary. It was obvious that he was educated however, depression was much to strong of an enemy to simply overcome.
Read MoreAs he came out of his tent I noticed he had trouble balancing. He stepped out and used a milk crate as a seat to sit down and lace his boots. He had to tie the boots by placing the shoelace into the creases of his hands because he could not fully bend his fingers as his hands were in a fixed position.
I asked, "Do you have arthritis?" He said, "No, I had a motorcycle accident a number of years ago and broke my back. It took me months to learn how to walk again. I never regained the full use of my hands. It was the second time I had an accident, only this time it was much worse then the first." I asked him what kind of bike he was on and he smiled, "It was on my Harley." He laughed and told me. "The wreck was in my own back yard... I knew there was a hole in the ground, just didn't see it."
Santa honey, there's one thing I really do need,
The deed - To a platinum mine,
Santa honey, so hurry down the chimney tonight.
"Santa Baby" was written by J. Javits, P. Springer, T. Springer.
“A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor — such is my idea of happiness.” ― Leo Tolstoy, Family Happiness
He said, "I don't have any family in Nashville, but I live here." I asked, "So, what are you going to do?" He then perked up and said, "I'm moving to California, that's where my daughter and grand-kids are."
