Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 8426  Plough Quarterly • Spring 2016 Mark 46 I see Mark often at the freeway off-ramp. He always has a smile and a sign with a positive message. He’s trim and handsome and does not do drugs or drink. When he came to see his portrait on display at the gallery, he told me the city had cleared all his stuff that morning, including his tent. That’s a big deal for a man who has almost nothing, but he didn’t dwell on it. Instead, he reflected on his portrait: When I look at the picture, I appreciate what I am, who I am. I like that Neil calls it “Invisible People,” ’cause that’s who we are. I hold the sign, I don’t talk to anyone unless I say hi, and you wouldn’t imagine how many brothers have come by me and just cussed me out because they’re mad about the way society’s going, or maybe I put them in an awkward position: “Now I gotta help him, because he’s right there.” People can drive by me like a stop sign. Some choose to talk to me, some choose to get out and pray with me. I’d rather be disliked than be ignored. No one wants to be ignored. So I choose to do what I’m doing now, just living, surviving . . . you can call it surviving. I mean, God feeds rats and roaches; he wouldn’t forget me. The gift that God has for people is something, man. It doesn’t have the spark that the devil has with the Jeeps and Range Rovers, and the bars and things like that, but it’s beautiful. We’re reaching for things that we want, and we never really get what we need. And that’s bad. It passes us right by. We have to understand that this is a material world, and everything has a shelf life for a reason; everything will pass. It might take a while for it to pass, but it passes. So it has to be eternal. . . . You got to understand that you’re learning something before you go. That saying is a trip, man: “As soon as I died, I started living.” It’s true. We’re learning about somewhere else. It’s not over. And I don’t think that God made all of these people down here for us to be separated from each other. Neil Shigley’s interview with Mark appears in full at plough.com/shigley.