Awakening to Ourselves - Tariq
by Bill Pautler
Tariq, My Armor-Clad Street Friend
(Story One of My Street Friend
Series)
I invited
Tariq into my apartment for the first time yesterday. I have been watching Tariq for over two years
and have been having conversations with him for about six months.
Tariq was a
little off-putting to get to know. He
is very dark skinned, well built, has a huge knife strapped to the inside of
his right calf, dresses primarily in all black, his face is almost entirely
covered up with dark spiked sunglasses and spiked face armor over his
mouth. The remainder of his attire
consists of black armored apparel: gloves, knee/shin guards, boots, elbow pads, and a large crow-bar strapped to his back.
You can tell he has a warrior spirit.
A protector and a guardian of the Light.
He rides a
three-wheeled pedal bike/trike with a big basket on the back with all his
possessions spilling over the sides.
Since I am an avid bike rider and my street ministry begins on my
bicycle rides through the city, I am always interested in people that use pedal
power as their only form of transportation.
Tariq, also
has a two-foot by three-foot poster on his bike that says:
[B] EING
[O] VER
[S] ATANS
[S] YSTEM
The first time we chatted I asked him about his sign. It was then that he explained it was the cover of his book (which you can buy on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/BOSS-Being-Over-Satan-System/dp/B0DL4J2CJD).
As a fellow author, cyclist and a spiritual
seeker, I was hooked with intrigue, and our relationship began.
Tariq is
incredibly intelligent. I have sat on
the ground for many hours on the sidewalk or in a parking lot and listened to him. His
yarns are large and long. Per his words:
He was birthed in an alley, had some type of black ops training, the military injected
him with a secret serum derived from giants to enhance his fighting ability, he
was intentionally run over by a well-known powerful attorney that left him unconscious
and close to death in a Walmart parking lot and when he worked for a Jewish
butcher in South Carolina he saw humans intentionally mating with pigs to
create a Pan like creature.
He has a
clear understanding of how the Have’s intentionally rig the system, so they
don’t have to be the Have Not’s.
When I invite street friends into my
apartment, which can be vulnerable, I have some rough guidelines. I only invite them into my sanctuary, when I
have known them for a while and feel comfortable with them. They can only stay for a couple hours, no
smoking, they can use my bathroom to urinate, but beyond that they must go to
the lobby restroom.
Most of them
live on the street full-time, which means they have a distinct smell. I try and make them feel at home, they can
wander about my 850 square foot 16th floor Hermitage as they
like. I throw a sheet over my couch, so
they don’t soil the fabric.
It is
getting close to Christmas, the weather last night was below freezing and Tariq
sent me a picture of his fire and asked if he could stop by. He is currently living under the interstate
about five blocks from me. I met him
downstairs outside on this cold morning.
I didn’t want to stand outside in the cold to talk with him, so I asked
him if he wanted to come into the lobby to talk. As we walked in, my spirit said, invite him
up to your apartment. So I asked Tariq if
he wanted to come up, he said yes and we got on the elevator. I always ask if they are comfortable coming
to my place, because just like I can feel vulnerable, so can they. Typically, their life has been filled with
large amounts of trauma. Being inside
can be confining and vulnerable to them.
I asked
Tariq if I could make him some coffee and cook him breakfast. So that is what we did. He charged his devices, sat on the couch
with the sun shining through my big old wooden windows. I fully opened my west facing window, so we
could stick our heads out, and I showed him how I often view his street
movements from the 16th floor,
often hollering and waving to him from this same window.. I pointed out the Pan statue in the cornice
of our building, that led to our strange conversation. We listened to music, talked some and I cooked
for him.
He literally
put at least 12 teaspoons of sugar in his coffee. I didn’t eat, I was fasting at the time, but
I cooked him lightly pan fried oysters (which he didn’t like), about 6 pieces
of bacon crispy, 3 eggs sunny side up and runny, per his preferences. Cookies for dessert and packed him some food
and another sugar laden coffee to go.
In the end we got in my car, I ran by the ATM and got him $20 and
returned him to his current home under the interstate. When I dropped him off, someone had left him
two bags of potatoes and an apple.
I tell you
all this, not so you think I am some noble person, because I am not. I am fascinated by my fellow street
beings. And as I rely more on my spirit
to guide me, my left hand rarely knows what my right hand is doing.
As I cheffed
for Tariq, I was overwhelmed to tears with gratitude for being able to serve
and honor him. The opportunity to love
on people, that have nothing to offer us, but the pure love of their hearts is dis-arming. It forces us to disarm ourselves, to put
our weapons down. Our weapons of: separation, of false beliefs, of safety, of exclusivity,
of have and have nots.
It points us
back to the fact that this world is a temporary state and we are all animated
by the same Spirit of God which is pure love.
The trans-actionless
purity, that comes from my street friends, is a love that is rarely felt in
this world.
My street
friends offer a love that is unshielded.
Unshielded by the safety of a car, by the safety of money, by the
ostentatiousness of a big house, by the safety of a gated community and by the
safety of the like-minded people we surround ourselves with.
They have
nothing to give, nothing to negotiate with, nothing to manipulate me with. They can only offer their raw, true selves.
The beauty
of their love is pure and unspoken. That
is the gift I have unexpectedly received from them and it has deeply altered my
perceptions of life.
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