Eye Opener
I just endured what was probably the longest day of my entire life. I left Sydney at 11am on Tuesday and landed in LA at 6am on Tuesday so after already gaining an additional 5 hours to my Tuesday, we decided to take a full tour of this enormously diverse and immersive city with the guidance of our new friend, Jesus.
I had heard about Jesus after Sam spent some time with him during his last visit to the states and always had a picture of what he was meant to be like in the back of my mind. The problem with having a preconceived notion of someone’s character is that it often doesn’t live up to the heights of the expectations but meeting Jesus was one of those rare cases where the reality actually exceeded all prior thoughts.
To truly understand what makes Jesus the character that he is, you have to contrast him with the environment he’s surrounded by. Los Angeles has a bewildering amount of disparity from the riches of Beverly Hills, to the sad sights of Skid Row and everything in-between. LA has so much to offer and if you jump into Jesus’ notchback Mustang and drive for 5 minutes, you’ll see these surroundings change block by block. As nice as the ritzy parts of LA are, Jesus’ heart lies in the hood. He speaks proudly of what it’s like to grow up in the parts of LA that people often describe as violent and dangerous. This environment is complex and causes you to find your way in a world where people are hustling and fighting their way to make a living, something that Jesus does through his clothing label and shop called The Wood Class.
The Wood Class is for the people. An encapsulation of what it means to grow up and live in Inglewood. On one hand, it represents the culture of cars, street takeovers and hustle, and on the other hand it represents a family, a group and a community that are all connected through their surroundings. This contrast is something that brings out a part of Jesus’ character that I’ve learned a lot from in my short time with him so far.
What makes Jesus special is not necessarily what he has, but how he’s gone about getting it. It became clear to me as Jesus gave up an entire day to take us on a tour of LA that he’s not doing it to impress us, he’s not showing off (although his driving/texting/rolling combination skills are impressive) and he’s not doing it for the money. I’m not sure if ‘karma’ is the correct word to use but the way Jesus goes about life has a strong link towards the notion of doing things for others because if it will most likely be you in that situation one day. You don’t give with the expectation of immediate or even long term return but there’s a certain moral compass that I could see pop up in a lot of people we met on our expeditions yesterday.
Whether it was Jesus’ brother offering to cook dinner, his graphic designer sitting down for a chat or the guy who’s been selling corn on the side of the street for 34 years letting us try his Mexican hot chocolate. There was a clear amount of kindness and giving that I thought was amazing to experience. I’m sure a lot of this could be explained by looking at the person Jesus is and that reflecting the people he surrounds himself with but there was definitely a simplicity in his philosophy that shows up on a broader scale around these parts of the hood.
If you do good things, good things are most likely going to come back to you. But if you do bad things, the opposite is true of that too. The negative side of this can definitely show up in crime, homelessness and violence which is sad to see but there’s a purity in the positive side that is evident when you see Jesus navigating his way through the chaos that is Los Angeles.
I’m sure there’s a lot more to this whole concept than I’ve just laid out but you’ll have to forgive me as I’ve lived two Tuesdays in a row and not slept enough to justify applying much more critical thought or grammatical awareness right now.