4/19/2005 12:34:00 PM|||Jonthon|||

I went to see a movie with my friend Joelle tonight at RagTag, and was totally taken away...
In the realms of the Unreal
This man lost his family at a young age, and his insubordination got him sent to a home for feeble-minded children, though he was actually probably an genius. He worked like a slave on an Illinois labor camp until he one day left and walked over 300 miles back to Chicago to begin his life. His family had now passed on, and he didn't know anyone in the entire world. As it turned out, he opted instead to create his own. He took low-paying jobs at local hospitals as a janitor, scrubbing on his hands and knees instead of using a broom (perfectionism in action). He would move hospital to hospital, opting to live poor. When not at work, he would write, draw, paint, read the newspaper (he read every paper published in Chicago over the course of his life, and kept them), and collect things like string. Over the course of his life, he wrote a 15,000 page epic and kept daily logs of battle counts, finances, and other details for both armies in his story. He would also glue together cheap butcher's paper into 10ft long canvases, then paint on both sides. he would save pictures of images he wanted to emulate, and practice them over and over until he got them perfect. he would glue the images into old phone books to keep as records. though he always attended church, toward the end of his life, he started attending church constantly (often 3 times every Sunday, and definitely every day). All he ever wanted was to adopt a child.
I left wanting to cry and smiling. I don't have it well, but it's good to be checked every once in a while. This man had absolutely nothing but his mind and his imagination, and what he did with his life is sad but inspiring.

|||111473443417509441|||In the Realms of the Unreal...