This is Qulee...
This is Qulee. He
and I had coffee together this afternoon, but I have to tell you the
back-story for this to have any significance.
I had just been to a
beautiful worship service at the church of which I'm a member; it
felt really good to be there because—for various reasons—I hadn't
been to worship in about a month. I had then stopped for a coffee
afterward, as I often do. And as I was sitting enjoying my coffee and
reading about a few continuing ed classes I may enroll in I noticed
Qulee enter the store. The reason I noticed him is because when he
came in he didn't go to the counter and order anything, but instead
sat down and started to have conversation with himself. I went back
to reading.
About 10 minutes or
so after this, Qulee says in a somewhat soft spoken way, “Hey
mister, can you buy me a cup of coffee?” So there I am feeling warm
and fuzzy from the aftereffects of a great worship service and
reading about spiritual classes I want to take—I also know that I
have a ten dollar bill in my wallet—and I am always spewing to
anyone who will listen that we as humans are all equal and connected
in some unfathomable way, and then someone with no money (I'm
assuming) asks me to by them a cup of coffee.
This, I am fully
aware, is a minor thing to some, but to me it is not. How could I
possibly say no.
After getting him
his coffee we went back to our chairs (not at the same table). I went
back to reading. After a few minutes he then asks what I do for work.
I work as a cook to support myself, I told him, but I'm also a
writer, photographer, and minister; he seemed impressed. He then
thanked for the forth time for buying his coffee. You're very welcome,
I told him, and then asked if I could take his photo and hear his
story to post on my blog. He immediately jumped up, struck the pose
in this photo, and said, “I'm naturally photogenic, what do you
want to know?” And this is what I found out...
Qulee (not sure if
I'm spelling it correctly) is a West African name, that's where his
father was from. He has been in a number of places, most recently in
Los Angeles where he started having panic attacks and subsequently
found it difficult to hold a job. He currently attends ECC full-time,
but spoken word is his true passion. He went on to tell me that he
wanted to use his spoken word poems as a way to connect and help
others on the street and in the community. He also says that his
panic attacks often affect his concentration and it pulls him off
track, but he will keep trying because that's really what he feels he
was put in this place for, it's what his personal mission is. He kept
talking and talking—to the point that he apologized for talking—and
finally I had to go.
It's interesting, I
think, the way chance encounters happen, but even more so, the
circumstances in which we each find ourselves. Things that have
happened in my life, for example—the good and the bad—have shaped
me to be the person that I am today, just as your experiences have
with you. And in this case, so too have they with Qulee. Before I
left I told him that I truly hope that he finds the peace and solace
to put what's in his head and heart onto paper. I also asked him to
remember me when he becomes famous. And with a big grin, he said he
would.
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