"You Ever Seen the Sistine Chapel?"

"hey man, you ever seen the Sistine chapel?"
it's the last thing i expected a scruffly, disheveled homeless man to ask me. But I came closer, because yes, I had seen the Sistine Chapel. In fact, I had just seen it a week ago, having just returned from a trip to Rome.
I said, "Yeah, I saw the Michaelangelo fresco of God touching man. Imbuing him with his apprehension."
This man smiled at me and said, "It's amazing isn't it?"
I looked around. Is this a coincidence? or did he somehow know? Am I giving it away? I asked him. "I just got back from seeing it. How did you know?"
He said, "I didn't. I was just wondering if you'd seen it."

I was actually on outreach. I work as an outreach worker for the city of San Francisco on the Homeless Death Prevention Team. So I talk to homeless folks for a living. I wasn't going to talk to this guy though. He looked in pretty good shape. He didn't look that old either. But I walked close and he smiled. so I sat down next to him with my back supported by the granite facade of the building while the sun shone in my eyes.

god touching man.

"The significance of Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, isn't god blessing man, but man, becoming/embodying god.. it's only the first wave. it's a transition period. we're still and always will be in transition."

The man said, "Today is the greatest day of your life. Because today, you realize something. Today you realize that you don't live in the world. You live in your body and your body lives in the world. And today you realize that as you understand and contemplate the world, you are contemplating yourself. And today you realize that when your contemplation is one with the world, then you have achieved. With that you can see everything as it is.. and yet, it has completely and totally changed, never to return to the old way. Today you realize that the greatest transformation the world will ever know, has just occurred within your mind and in the world, as the world mirrors your mind. Today the world will become changed and it will be the greatest transformation ever known, and it will ignite a thousand flowers to bloom, and it will never happen again."

when you contemplate the universe and all the things within it.. it's all literally within your mind.. drink it in, draw it in. you have embodied, the largest. the smallest, contemplating the largest. that's how it changes and fills you up and makes you perfect.. when your inner mind, holds the universe it dwells in. when it mirrors completely, then you have realized.. and everything is exactly the same...

the man asked me, "hey man, you ever seen the Sistine chapel?"

I talked to this man and found out his story. It was the story of a boy of a man that was self-made, professional, enlightened, a good and very loving father. and although his father was great. they moved like leaf's to the wind from place to place, location to location learning, teaching, experiencing, loving, sharing, yet tragically in death, this man, had no caretaker for his son.
Now the man though troubled, homeless, stays homeless because he feels the spirit of his father will leave him if he does not follow it around the world as it hearkens. he has incredibly beautiful moments, or has had them.

As I am accustomed to doing in my outreach work. I asked this man if he had any medical conditions. He pulled out a wad of papers from SFGH. He had been discharged the day i returned from Europe. He had been admitted the day I left. He had chf, copd, emphysema and was supposed to pick up an oxygen bottle. he had no place to live, so the equipment company could not deliver it. He was supposed to contact them from the shelter he was referred to. but he did not go to the shelter.

The funny thing was, a co-worker of mine from another outreach team had called me two hours ago, saying that they had placed 9 of their ten slots in a new medically supported section 8 sro. all 4 of their back-up/stand-by clients had passed, not wanting to part with their checks, or being able to commit to trying to be sober. He had another slot, but the eligibility required a major and i mean major medical condition. This guy fit the bill. It was a long shot that I would know someone, seeing as we placed all 5 of our slots and had no one else that was eligible. It was 2pm. They closed at 5, and I had to convince him to take the apartment, sign over his check, get ID, proof of income, and disability and get him to the location all in 3 hours, and all i knew, was that he had been to the Sistine chapel with his son, 42 years ago... before it had even been restored.

this guy's father died when he was 9, but not before he took him all over the world, and shared wonderful relationships, and experiences, finished the 10 year great books course in 3 years on the road, history lessons, memory tricks, yoga, meditation, sweat lodges, wilderness exploration and survival. I was amazed at how much he knew, but he responded, "i don't know that much, i only know how to live".

On one travel, his father took him to the Sistine chapel, and held him up to see the fresco by Michelangelo... it was god touching man.. "my dad told me that he was touching me!"


All i could think was when he saw me he had said, "hey man, you ever been to Sistine chapel?" Miraculously, he had his ID, proof of SSDI income, he was willing to sign over his check. he wanted to get well. I was able to convince himself that maybe if he lived in doors for a few months, got good medical care, got good rest, he would be able to hit the road in a while.. he went for it.

I called my friend, and they held the spot. I was able to get this guy there shortly after 4pm.. almost an hour to spare.

How? because I had seen the Sistine Chapel... I couldn't get it out of my head, and I couldn't stop crying.