Lessons from Angelo
Angelo lived in a tree house. Not the kind that you had to
climb a ladder into with sheets as
windows and you camp out with your friends on warm summer nights that
are filled with buzzing fire flies. Not the kind with the safety of going inside if you get too
scared, but a real tree house. The kitchen and bathroom were built around the
trunk and up the stairs off a deck and built into the branches was a bedroom.
Small and simple, but a well loved and unique hide away.
In the gazebo that was nestled below the hanging branches
and over a pond, the embers glowed from the grill that would cook our dinner of
clams and Thai BBQ. Amidst the friendly hula hoop contests, clanging bottles of
beer Chang and Sangsum, the live classic rock strum from guitars of relaxed
boys in hammocks. Someone would then start the singing of Radio Head and The
Eagles and this is how it went until the early morning hours.
This is what I think of when I think of Thailand. Music. Whether
it’s on the beach with the pink dolphins as an audience and the waves keeping
tempo, to a simple western style living room. This is what defined us. And it
fit Angelo, as did his tree house.
Angelo was a tree. His trunk planted firmly in the ground in
the knowledge of his identity, his life, his loves and his beliefs. In the word
“REVOLUTION” that was permanently inked diagonally across his entire torso. In his
firm stubborn affirmation that the Bears would ALWAYS beat the Vikings…always.
His arms had the wingspan of an eagle, like branches they stretched
out to the world. Showing love and acceptance to all he encountered. At times
it seemed Angelo had hundreds of arms, as a tree has branches. The sun was his
life source and I often picture Angelo, arms spread wide to the sky, eyes closed
to the heavens, smiling as the sun beams its warmth into his body and fills him
to the brim.
Angelo encompasses the concept of “risk” perfectly. There is
a saying that if you fail to take risks, your life will deteriorate. This can
be seen in the athletic world. If an athlete fails to take risks, to step to
the next level, his body will deteriorate. If a student fails to take risks of
challenging themselves academically to the next level, their brain will
deteriorate. My grandmother, even into her 90’s, never watched TV, she only did
crosswords and read books because she was always pushing herself, taking the
risk of the next level mentally. She had her mind complete when her health
failed her.
This can be seen of Angelo as well. Angelo would always pick
play fights and make bets. Angelo would challenge authority with a respectful
tact. Angelo would never hesitate to ask questions of every single person he
came into contact with, just so he could learn more.
I remember when I was finishing my lunch in the cafeteria and
talking to a couple colleagues, Angelo came and sat right across from me and
with a chicken BBQ lined mouth interrupted with a, “so human trafficking, huh?”
It was something he didn’t know much about, but he knew I did. So to challenge
himself and take a risk, he asked to learn more.
There are other more complex aspects of risks and challenges
that we can learn from the life of Angelo. That is the risk to live without
fear. So often in life we have grand ideas, big plans for adventure. Yet
somewhere along the way, someone reminds us of this little thing called
“safety.” In the western world, this is something that consumes us. Bike
helmets, rounded playgrounds,side airbags, the list goes on and on.
We forget then the risk that we were so excited about, the
one that made us come alive, and in turn we go back to our complacent life. But
a complacent life without risk leads to stagnancy and deterioration, not
growth. How will you ever know if you can fly, unless you take the risk and
try. We will never know our full potential, what we are capable of, or the
type of impact we can have on the world, unless we try. I’m sure mother Theresa
has thought about the safety issues that concern the work she did in the red
light districts, the orphanages, and the leper colonies, but she took that
risk, and changed the world simply by being present where others wouldn’t.
Where others told her it was “unsafe.”
In my time in Thailand, everyone took risks. It was a risk
to simply walk to school and hope to not get hit by a motorcycle. It was a risk
to cross a rickety old bridge made of uneven twigs elevated on nothing but
large jagged rocks. It was a risk to eat. It was a risk for me to go into
nightclubs and form relationships with the bar girls, and it was a risk to play
with the street kids while they were supposed to be selling flowers to support
their parents alcohol addiction at 2am. Yet these were all risks that everyone
was willing to take in order to push themselves, to search for something
bigger, to see if they could fly.
The childlike risk that the street children took in order to
be a kid and have the freedom to play was embodied daily by Angelo. Angelo was taking a risk the day he
climbed the steep jungle path to make it to the top tier of the waterfall. I
can picture his reaction as he slipped and plummeted down the rocky waterfall
was not that of fear, but that of adventure. And I know for a fact that Angelo
would not have regretted the risk he took that day. For in that risk, he
learned to fly. Canon T3i 18.0MP Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm IS Lens - Digital (Google Affiliate Ad)
It's time we all embraced risk and learned to fly.
