Who do you think you are?

Are You Here To Be A Healer? 179

and just going on his particular mission. Then I found out about my
mission after a series of involvements in all kinds of community service.
I was recycling, when it wasn’t at all popular, when you were
called a “junkman.” There was no such thing as ecology or environmental
awareness, no term for recycling, so you were determined to be a junkman
if you collected bottles, newspapers or cans to be used to once again.
Then there were the community cleanups I organized in my young adult
years.
I began to wrestle with the demons of crime and to see the root
causes. A society that originally brought us up to believe that we are our
brother’s keeper could turn and suddenly acquire a malaise of “mind
your own business.” That’s when I decided to fight for what I knew what
was right, no matter how many people thought I had the furniture upstairs
and rearranged in all the wrong rooms.
I organized it in a very unorthodox way, as a visual presence in
red berets, red satin jackets, and white Guardian Angel T-shirts without
any weapons, without any special powers or privileges. We just
empowered ourselves. The weak, the helpless, those who have always
been resigned to sitting on the sidelines being told government will enable
you, government will take care of, you’re not capable, you’re not strong
enough, you’re not smart enough, you haven’t got a college degree, you
don’t have the mental capacity to control yourself emotionally. I discarded
that and said, “From within this resource of humanity can come the
answers.” It had to do with a respect for one another and coming to the
aid of others even if it meant risking your life in the process.

If you could give advice to those who are still searching for their
life’s purpose, what would it be?

There are two types of satisfaction in the world. There’s the satisfaction
of building and improving your own life, your own self-worth or your
own self-esteem. I understand that for a lot of people you really have to
do that first before you can go on to the nobler mission, the mission that
has a higher calling. To give of yourself to those who can least help
themselves, and empower them.
In terms of finding the vehicle, it’s got to be something that you’re
passionate about. Something you eat, breathe, and sleep 24-7-365.
Something you’re totally obsessed about, where you feel you can make
your mark on society, so much so that you become energized. You even
take something as important as sleep and begin to think of it as not being