Schall Adams: AMAZING Life BLOG

From homeless guy to traveling minstrel.

Recently my husband and I were in NY City for vacation. We had a wonderful time, saw two Broadway shows, a play and a musical. One of the shows, The Addams Family, was a one of a kind experience! During a scene with Bebe Neuwirth and Nathan Lane one of the stage lights exploded sounding like a staged gunshot. Both of the actors broke character and had a little fun with it as did we and the rest of the audience. It was one of life's magical moments.

We went apple picking with our nieces and nephew and as I was candidly filming the youngest, she slipped in apples on the ground. She wiped her hands on some of the other apples, then on the leaves on the tree and then finally finished it off by wiping her hands on her shirt. Again, one of life's magical moments.

These are the moments that are amazing. There is surprise and wonderment in our everyday existence not just in the big events. Our everyday experiences shape our lives in ways that the big events do not but they are often taken for granted and not fully experienced! But we expect those moments anyway and we know that they mean something good.

However, there are times when an experience comes our way and we give it a meaning that prevents us from truly experiencing it in the fullest way. In fact it could have happened on the subway the day that my husband and I were leaving NY City. A very tall, homeless, black man stepped onto the subway car and announced to everyone that he was going to ask for our assistance. "If you can help bless you and if you can't bless you too. Enjoy the music." Then he tilted his head back, closed his eyes and began to sing "Just my Imagination". I put money in his hat and started singing along with him, and encouraging him on. We sang three songs and the people were very generous with him. Before we left the train we high-fived and he called my husband "Mr. Lucky".

How amazing was that moment in time? How different could it have been perceived? How differently could we all have acted? Some people see him as a scary homeless guy - I saw a "traveling minstrel" ..and another one of life's magical moments.

Before he sang the third song he said, "What would the world be like if we all cared about each other? Not loved, but just ...cared?" and started singing "A Change is Gonna Come". Amazing moment that I will remember forever. I'm glad I chose to be present for it.