The guy was a mess. Everyone’s first thought, upon seeing him, was “Poor Fucking Guy”. Yea… he was a wreck, haggard, beaten up, seasoned, filthy. You knew he had been around the block one too many times but yet… he lingered… on that same block. You couldn’t help but wonder why (or for what reason) he was still hanging around. Most of the time he looked like death and yet, he just wouldn’t die. No, he didn’t go quietly into that good night. He wanted to be loved, until the very last moment of his life. You could sense that he had some intrinsic wisdom of the power of affection and he sought it out every chance he got. His name was Willy. He didn’t die from starvation or an infected eye or the multiple battle scars he inherited from the streets. He didn’t even die from the cancer he was recently diagnosed with… No, none of these things killed him… I did. But, I also loved him. And this is our story…
His body told the tale of a tragic but, mighty journey. His eyes illustrated the adventurous life he had led as “The lone wolf of San Fernando Valley”. A one eyed pirate who relished in the shade, fought alley demons, found shelter in the rubbish, foraged for food, fought the tumultuous automotive storms of Lankershim Blvd and found a family. With all that said, his weathered body always showed such signs of life. If you knew Willy, it was as if for however fucked up his life was, somewhere between all of the neglect and abandonment he had experienced… he understood the greatness of life and he wanted to share it… with us. Most might say it was a “Sad Life” he lead but, I don’t know about that… Willy was free and that’s a lot more than a lot of us will ever be able to say about our time here. Willy was determined to live out all 9 of his lives… and that he did.
I called him Olive because he had green eyes. They weren’t normal green eyes either… they were a new hue of omnipotent green that you’ve never seen. And some days, they weren’t green at all. They were yellow – but whatever color they chose for the day, they were always a shade of love. They made you see things clearer. They begged you to stop and demanded you take them in… they were magnificent and they were his. They taught you something about the magnitude of a moment and they would thrust you into a present state of reality (or being) so pure, and genuinely rare in this life, that he couldn’t help but be acknowledged as beautiful.
Hippy Dippie 