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Shot in the face 2121 Responses
Last post: 4 months, 1 week ago | Thread started: Aug 27, 08, 5:35 p.m.
- dbloc
Riding my bicycle along
Hollywood Boulevard today
I saw him in the crowd - noticed
him instantly. When we reached
each other, I said hi and asked
if he would mind if I took his
photo.
"You want my photo?"
Yeah, I said. There's nobody
like you.
"I know." And he smiled for me
-although his face was
evidently destroyed by something-
and his mouth reconstructed.I asked him what happened.
"Shot," he said. "Shot in the
face." He motioned a gun
at close range being shot
directly into his face.Andyou survived that? I asked.
"No," he said with a smile.
"I'm dead."
I apologized for what was
a stupid question, but it
was hard to fathom - gun shot-
close range - into his face. And
he lived.So what happened? I asked.
Was it an accident, or did
someone mean to shoot you?"I did it myself. Tried to kill
myself."You did?
"Yeah."Where?
"Arizona."Phoenix?
"Tucson."So tell me, how did it feel,
after you shot yourself in the
face - and you came to -
and realized you were not
dead?"Agony. The worst agony
ever."Man.
"Yeah."What kind of gun?
"30-aught-six."I was thunderstruck. I have
met and photographed many
people - who are featured in this
stream - humans who have
overcome amazing
adversity. Lydia, who was
burnt almost to death.
Ray, whose eye was gone.
Margaret, who weighed over
500 pounds.But this. Man. And yet he
was smiling. I told him what
I thought:God gives everyone a different
life - and some people get really
really hard lives."That's me. Doesn't get
much worse."Told me he's on the street.
Homeless.I asked him how bad it was
that he wanted to die.
"Bad. Really bad. The worse
kind."Are you gonna try again?
"No. I tried once. That's enough."Man.
Sometimes our lives
seem hard - unbearable even -
but then we meet Kevin.
Or Lydia. Or Ray. And realize
again how lucky we are.
How hard some humans
have it.
Man.And yet
he smiled. He smiled
for me. This man with his
face blown off - by his own
hand. And here he is -
in the sunshine, listening
to music, smiling.Don't even know what else
to say about this. Guess
I've already said it.- Aug 27, 08, 5:35 p.m. – Permalink
- doesnotexist
there's a lesson here, somewhere....
- Dog-earAug 27, 08, 5:39 p.m. – Permalink
- BannedKappa
My next door neighbour growing up shot himself in the face with a shot gun. He survived the attempted suicide.
At the time he had done it I, was walking home from school with my brother, and we came across the police bringing him our on a stretcher with bloody towels stuffed into a massive hole in his face.
He still lives next to my folks place and keeps to himself mostly. Sad.
- Dog-earAug 27, 08, 5:42 p.m. – Permalink
- vanilla_cam
midweek pick-me-up eh?
at least i wasn't shot in the face.
- Dog-earAug 27, 08, 5:51 p.m. – Permalink
- Jnr_Madison
Seeing the photo then reading down, I initially thought it was the guy talking and he got shot in the face for wanting to take someone's pic.
- Dog-earAug 27, 08, 5:55 p.m. – Permalink
- eighteen
I used to take perspective from this kind of stuff, but then I realized that almost everything is relative to everything else. I mean, when you think about it, or at least when I do, if the guy is smiling and enjoying his day what makes his life worse than some smiling movie star that drives by him?
I don't know, maybe his life is worse, but I guess what I mean is does that really matter? I mean what to we achieve by rating each other's quality of lives on such broad scales when everybody is so different that we couldn't even begin to understand what it's like to be someone else.
- Dog-earAug 27, 08, 6:01 p.m. – Permalink
- Jaline
This reminds me of that character from "Preacher".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ars…(no disrespect meant, of course)
- Dog-earAug 27, 08, 6:07 p.m. – Permalink
- blankeyecue
I think you shouldve asked him how did he survived on a blank range...the bullet shouldve gone straight and blew his brains!..But yeah.. He really should smile for being alive..tons of cancer patients dying everyday wishing to have more extension for their life...
- Dog-earAug 28, 08, 12:55 a.m. – Permalink
- Walker2
There used to be a great, horrifically great, photograph on the internets somewhere of a man who had failed to kill himself with a shotgun to the face. He was sat on a hospital bed facing toward the camera but he wouldn't have known that, his was head like a giant succulent jungle lilly, opened, with an elongated red tongue lolling around like a floppy stamen.
- Dog-earAug 28, 08, 2:32 a.m. – Permalink
- roundabout
Well, he is lucky he did not use a Magnum Hand Gun, it would have blown his head clean off his shoulders.
- Dog-earAug 28, 08, 2:57 a.m. – Permalink
- blaw
As a teenager I encountered a boy from another area school that had an odd birth defect in which he was unable to close his mouth. The effect is that of a human "Scream" mask and it scared the hell out of me, to be honest. I remember being silently thankful that his was not my lot.
In the past couple of years I've frequently found myself in this man's company, as his boys are about the same age as mine, and he looks the same, albeit 20-some years older. He's a funny, pleasant guy with a beautiful wife, athletic sons, and owns multiple businesses. He's extremely active with his family and volunteers within our community. All around a hell of a guy.
I just can't get over the fact that so many people I've met buckle under comparatively trivial pressures, whereas this guy thrives.
Typing this feels a bit like I'm talking behind his back, but I've truly found him to be an inspiration.
- Dog-earAug 28, 08, 4:26 a.m. – Permalink
