Denver Bailey on "the wisdom of the earth and goodness of the soul"

Dear Friends:

In recent days I've had lots of conversations with my friend, Denver Bailey, who has been wandering the land without a permanent home since he was 15.  A few months ago he landed in Asheville, plays his banjo on the downtown square from time to time, takes landscaping and handyman jobs where he can find them.  These days he is in high demand as many of my friends are calling on him for yard work, pruning, mulching, gardening, rock work, clean-up jobs, and runs to the landfill.   He is saving up his money to buy a truck so he can launch a real business and get a roof over his head.

Denver is now 26 -- thoughtful, articulate, and full of wisdom.   He believes the struggle to survive itself has given him strength and understanding.  Today he told me:  "The only way to know your strength is to struggle, brother man.  Last ten years of my life taught me to appreciate every day, take nothing for granted.  It makes a man humble -- and very respectful of the food and water going into his body."

No trace of bitterness in this man, none.

"I've known kindness, sir," he continues, "I've been fed and sheltered and taken in out of the rain more times than I can remember."

I ask him how he came by his values and attitudes.  He says:  "A man ain't worth nothing but his name brother man.  If a man has good morals, good values, he puts out good vibes to the universe, and he will be provided for.  We can’t take anything with us when we go.  What we have left in this life is for the next generation.  You can quote the Bible, you can look under a rock. It all breaks down to this:  we were given to this earth to take care of it."

"You're a deep thinker."

"I am not just one person, sir.  I am the collective.  If it weren’t for the fellows before us, there would be no us.  We would have no knowledge.  We would not have the understanding we have.  Everything we have today we have those in the past to thank for.   We have to pass on that knowledge and the wisdom of the earth and the goodness of the soul to help the young to grow up strong and wise instead of weak and foolish.

"Are you optimistic about where we're headed?"

Fact is, brother man, we are living in a cess pool of filth of our own making.  Every day we burn more oil, we are taking food out of our mouths.  The earth will cleanse itself, will wash itself clean someday.  Not in my day, but it will happen.  History repeats itself.  The mistakes we’ve made, we are doomed to repeat them.  That’s understood."

"Denver, I can't decide whether you're an Old Testament Prophet, a wandering minstrel, or Buddha re-incarnated."

"All I can tell you," he says, "is that when a man has nothing, he realizes what his needs are.   Simplicity – food, shelter, ability to warm himself, that’s all he needs.  If a man has never really had comfort, then a rock is comfortable for a pillow.  I can remember times walking in the woods as the sun peaks through the clouds rolling over and running my fingers through the tall grass, and I remember washing my face in the morning dew."

"You're a poet, Denver."

After a long pause, I ask Denver if he minds being interviewed like this.  "Don't mind at all, sir.  If you get famous by interviewing me -- just give me a cut.  And if I get famous -- I’ll give you a cut!"

At that we both break down laughing.  "Sounds like a deal to me, brother man," I say.  And we shake on it.