street roots
Oct. 26, 2012
Urban hobo brings sales to life in downtown
BY K A ISA CROW
C O N T R IB U T IN G W R IT E R
uy a copy of Street Roots from
vendor John Michael Christian if
you are passing by SW 6th and
Salmon outside of Starbucks, or some
mornings, if you find yourself leaving Great
Harvest Bread at SW 2nd and Yamhill. The
least you’ll get is the paper, but if you have
a few more minutes, you can get a lot more.
John Michael, although he doesn’t take to
John Michael
labeling himself, is an artist, a writer, a
teacher and spiritual guide, whose own life
is reflected and expanded in a message of
love and compassion that he wants to share
with others.
That message is so ready to be shared,
that when I arrived late to our interview it
felt suddenly as if I had tuned in late to
“This American Life” and was scrambling
excitedly to put together what I had already
missed in Part I. Tall in stature and slightly
flaired in dress, John wore a blue stocking
cap, a cross necklace layered over a rosary,
and donned painted red fingernails, which
appeared both calculated and cursory at the
same time. We attempted to go for a walk,
which lasted only a block before I found
myself simply leaning against a lamp post,
listening intently to both his personal story
as well as his life philosophies, which he
collects in a working tome titled, “Hobo
Metaphysics.”
For John, “hobo” is the term he prefers
over “homeless.” He doesn’t like the stigma
attached to the word homeless and sees
hobo containing a greater spirit of
adventure. Traditionally, hobos have been
known to be train-hoppers and travelers,
and as John Michael says coyly, “handsome
men of the road.” So when John Michael
talk about hobos he is at times referring to
his greater community, but I also get a
sense that there is a dignity that lies in the
attainment of a higher level of “hobo-ness.”
However, if enlightenment is necessarily
preceded by struggle and pain, much of
what John writes and shares stems from the
harsher side of life’s experiences and living
on the streets rather than its idealized
adventures. John felt a huge, painful shift in
his life when he was able to reconnect with
memories of sexual abuse from his
childhood that had been blocked out, which
reshaped the trajectory of the following
years of his life. Plagued by shame and self-
loathing, and many years that he says he
spent “feeling sorry for himself,” John
Michael spent spent years “hoboing” across
the South, mostly alone, reading all he could
and slowly, unconsciously, working through
some of his pain. That time took on a tone
of spiritual solitude for John Michael, and it
was this that gave him an opportunity to
begin the healing process, a vital step for
his happiness.
Considering himself a lone-hobo, when he
eventually ended up in Portland among a
large community experiencing
homelessness, it rocked his world and
moved his heart. He was blown away by the
repeated abuses and wounds people were
suffering, and the enormous need for
healing that he could see and feel around
him, and decided he wanted to tell people’s
stories. “People want to understand
homelessness,” he says. “There are so
many stereotypes, people don’t know what
to think. I kind of want to put a human face
on it.”
John Michael writes these stories and
shares his “hobo metaphysics,” with others.
“The eyes see only what the mind allows,”
he says when talking about the limitations
we place on ourselves by letting our painful
experiences shape where we can or can’t go
in life. “Its not who you are, or what you are,
only that you are.”
An ardent reader and spiritual
journeyman, John Michael can quote the
writings of spiritual leaders and gurus from
many different schools of thought. One of
those gurus is Jesus Christ, who proclaimed
that what you measure out in this world will
be measured back to you. “He is talking
about karma,” said John simply, and he
practices it. He isn’t preoccupied with
finding one route to peace or heaven,
instead likening each spiritual journey to
different modes of transportation, all taking
us to the same place. He doesn’t understand
those that would point a finger at someone’s
spiritual path and say “That ain’t the right
bus. Nonsense,” he laughs. “Why would you
even care?”
Instead, “hobo metaphysics” is grounded
in a philosophy of learning to love oneself
and accept that we each deserve healing,
compassion and love. John Michael aspires
to pass on these tenets. “I want to teach
people,” he says, “Not like I’m this big wise
guy, but I think I have some wisdom to pass
on.” He sees a world around him of “the
walking wounded,” especially in his street
community, people in desperate need of
some time and space to heal. He doesn’t
believe pain and abuse are natural, but
instead are a departure from our original
state of happiness.
This state he sees as possible again,
through a belief in ourselves and a higher
power. “What you believe is true, is true. So
if you must carry beliefs, make it just two:
Belief in God, and the belief in You, until
the differences between you are through.”
Once a love for oneself is attained, he
believes the capacity for compassion and
healing necessarily spills over into our
human community.
“Kindness is the goal,” he says. “It is
what I want to feel for people all the time.”
He acknowledges the struggle that this can
be, and the requirement for the active
practice of loving your neighbor in a world
so askew. But it is the practice and
dedication to a better way that brings so
much hope to John Michael’s perspective.
To him, everyone is a lovable, yet repressed,
creative genius. You may be one yourself, in
fact. John Michael assures you that you are.
Stop by for a chat, and in no time he’ll have
your rapt attention, and will be underway
helping you discover it for yourself.
Answers to puzzles on page 15
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Street Roots strives for accuracy, but
we're human. So we also strive to correct
errors in our paper whenever possible.
Please report any errors to our managing
editor, Joanne Zuhl, at 503-228-5657, or
write to joanne@streetroots.org
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