"One Way"

After our successful visit with Ali, we decided to head over to LAMP, a community shelter which provides immediate housing and lifelong supportive services for homeless men and women living with severe mental illness. For 23 years, Lamp Community has improved health, built self-sufficiency, and awakened and nurtured the tools necessary for people to transform their lives.
Each night, nearly 74,000 homeless people in Los Angeles County seek shelter on streets, in encampments, or in vehicles. An estimated one-third to one-half of L.A’s homeless people struggle with severe mental illness, making mental illness, by far, the most serious health problem affecting the homeless. (www.lampcommunity.org)

We heard about this place from the novel we've been reading, The Soloist. A Los Angeles Times Columnist, Steve Lopez, decides that he was going to try to help a homeless man he encountered one day walking to work. His name is Nathaniel Anthony Ayers. Having made connections with various music companies who wanted to donate instruments to Nathaniel, Lopez decides to store instruments at LAMP in hopes that it would lure him to come and receive help. Unfortunately, he suffered from Schizophrenia and had many mental issues. However, Nathaniel did eventually receive help, but it was, and still is, a long, and arduous journey. More about his amazing story can be viewed on youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7ovt3vSFi8. The movie is also coming out in April featuring Roberty Downey Jr. as Steve Lopez and Jamie Fox as Nathaniel. Please, if you are reading this, check out the book and get interested.

Continuing on, on our way to LAMP, we drove past it the first time around. We were confused and were obviously unsure of where the place was. There was a little sign that read "Lamp Village" and one door open. Could that be it? It had to be because the surrounding buildings were industrial buildings and Crocker street ended at the next block. There wasn't much activity so we had our doubts orginally, but we decided to drive around again confused and uncertain. However, attempting to turn around we mistakenly turned right instead of left.. ON A ONE WAY STREET! Realizing the mistake immediately, we were in a bit of shock as we could see the oncoming traffic heading straight for us. Quickly, we turned into a small sidewalk opening and caught our breath. A homeless man saw the whole thing and, was laughing, almost in embarassment for us. However, seeing that there was a blindspot caused by all the parked cars on the street, he guided us and helped us turn ourselves around before we got into any major accident. Thank God for that generous man!

Getting back on track safely, we went around the block again and found parking. We were still a little shaken up from that ordeal. "Let's just go inside, get some information, and leave." All we could focus on was the fact that we almost encountered death and/or a really bad accident. As we were walking towards the entrance of LAMP, Melinda noticed we had driven right past a homeless man across the street. The man was playing his violin and was lost in his own world. She told Mike almost jokingly, "Mike what if that's him, Nathaniel ?!?" And before she really could gather her words, Mike shouted out "Hey Nathaniel!" and began walking across the street towards him. He recognized him immediately because he had watched the clip from YouTube during the past week. IT WAS HIM.. THE NATHANIEL ANTHONY AYERS.

He was exactly how Mr. Lopez described in his novel, but real and humble as ever! We stayed with him for the next few hours... just listening to him, getting to know him, watching him get lost in his music. It was extremely beautiful! He was endeering and extremely sincere. We could not believe the man we were reading about was actually real...I mean, there he was, violin and all. He wrote our names down in his five-star memo book, "Michael.. M..I..C..H..A..E..L and Melinda.. M..E..L..I..N..D..A" spelling it out carefully as he routinely does. We didn't want to leave, but we still had to follow our agenda for the day. We attempted a couple times to mention that we had to go inside and talk to people, but failed because he was entranced in his music. As Mr. Lopez described, " Music [was his] anchor, a connection to great artists, to history and to himself. His head is filled with mixed signals, a frightening jumble of fractured meaning, but in music there is balance and permanence...Music is meditation, a reverie, a respite from madness. It is his way to be alone without fear." (Lopez, 38-39)

Finally, we convinced him that we had to get going, but invited him to come inside with us if he wanted. He told us he had to try to talk to the "head honcho" anyway. He gave us a little tour of LAMP. We couldn't believe the intensity of this man... So humble, so down to earth, so genuine. He knew everyone by name, even the interns. A lovely lady we met gave us a brief tour and told us some updates on Nathaniel's progress. He actually moved out of LAMP last year and lives by himself in an apartment.

Nathaniel became our new friend that day. He wrote us down in his notebook and labeled us as "nice people." We assured him we will come to visit. It was the greatest gift of affirmation we received...all because of a mistake. Had we not driven down that one way street, we might have walked right past him. Everything happens for a reason.

" A man's errors are his portals of discovery." - James Joyce