Super Happy Numba One

EDIT: !atomaweapon noted quite observantly that I had a lapse in contrast acquisition, and that this photo really needed a kick in the ass. So to acquire that "professional flair", I have modified the image and resubmitted it. So many thanks to him for a precision critique.
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Author's Request: When commenting, please refrain from the lousy two-word "hey great" comments. I don't care about those at all. Also, if you're going to fav it, I would really like it if you gave me a reason why you decided to add it to your favorites. People who leave long, thought out comments usually get rewarded with some of my own insight onto their work. So if you want me to give you some of my time, show some interest by giving some of your own.

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It was a cold, breezy day. A quick bout of early morning rainfall had dampened the streets, but not much to consider a storm. The weather has been drying up again, so it seems the winter spell of various weather patterns is receeding. I spent the day with Hayley, AKA ~weaselsdontfly, and did the usual trip for DDR, slurpies, pet store, and quick stop by home to feed pet lizards.

That afternoon as Hayley and I were leaving the mall, I saw that the clouds were beginning to disperse and a medium haze had settled onto the horizon. "Hayley," I say, "want to join me on a spontaneous photo shoot?" She and I have this routine on days we spend together, but throwing in something like this is definitely a welcome change of pace. I already had the Redondo Beach Pier in mind when saying this, as I have always wanted to take some shots down there.

Hazy sunsets are not easy to get, as you need the perfect venue and a clear vantage point to fully capture the color of the sunset. It's possible, but very hard. Here's why. The window of opportunity is very narrow, only around five minutes. You see, as the sun is dropping downward, the sky is in full blaze of light, botching out everything in an angle towards the sun. It also makes the landscape more flattened out, which isn't a good thing, as the light is dispersed through the haze evenly cancelling out the shadows. Without depth, and without shadows, the background just becames a flatted matte, dull and lifeless. So if it's towards the sun, it's blinding. Away, it's insipid.

Yet the sun sinks lower, and lower. Eventually, it hits a point where the sun is completely behind the haze, right as it dips into the horizon. Then everything just seems to go red. Magentas, fuchias, strawberries, and mangos jump out, and a whole new life just suddenly appears. The Redondo Beach Pier would be the perfect location for such an environmental phenomenon, as it has many angles to its architecture and lies on a good patch of shorefront for some distinct shots of the far horizon. This is especially true when the reds and pinks come out like this. At this point, Hayley and I were talking to a woman who had just found God, and dag nabbit, she just wanted EVERYBODY to know. I really admire people like her. People who can stick to their faith, and didn't acquire it from a childhood of being forcefed the Bible, but on their own accord. They're the strong ones, the true Christians, the ones whom I hold deep-rooted respect towards.

Imagine if you will my own experience of finding God. It happened last week at Bank of America. I'll tell you, God in this case was an older man with short silver hair, a square face, and one of the friendliest looks that can ever grace a man. One look with those eyes seems to peer through your face, like your physical form doesn't even exist, and glares right at your soul. I felt taken by him, and smiled contently as he came up to my car. He was a panhandler, asking for a handout, and at this time I didn't feel anything weird. He had gotten screwed in a business deal, and he said "you can tell, I groom myself, I just got a haircut, I don't have alcohol on my breath and I shave." He did. Quite a good looking man of his age, too. "Except, I was caught off guard, and now I need bus fare to get to LAX Airport. Any chance you could spare some change."

What's difficult about hitting up a guy as he's pulling out of a bank is that he only carries large bills. Twenties. And that was all I had. However, as he was talking, something inside of me demanded that I spare something, and that was when a fluke of thinking jumped in. I open the glove box, and find a small bag with a few quarters in it; my parking meter supply. I didn't want to sit there, counting it all out, as I had been trying for weeks to reduce my loose change. I hate loose change. So I just take the bag, with the two dollars of quarters in it, and graciously hand it off to him wishing him the best of luck.

"Thank you so much. And I promise you, this will come back to you in ways greater than you can imagine." He turns, but catches himself and looks right back at me, those bold eyes penetrating my retinas once again. "Oh, and be careful when you back out." I ponder this for a moment, thinking it a weird thing to say to some-

VROOOOOM!!!

The SUV behind me had just flown out of its space at break-neck speed, almost smashing into a car behind it. If I had pulled out ten seconds earlier, the time it would have taken to terminate the exchange between the man and myself when he asked for change, I would have been right there in its blind spot. My car would be wrecked. Seeing how fast it was going, I would have probably suffered a fair bit of injury, myself.

It'll come back to you. Be careful when you back out. Thank you, God. Your wisdom is so subtle, yet so effective.

So everybody has their time of finding God, and it's not through the constant lambasting of Bible classes, Catholic education, or Sunday school. You have to find Him on your own. That's what this one woman did. As she was saying, "and The Lord brought me here, to the Redondo Beach Pier, because he said so, so here I've been ever since giving reed crosses to people only to remind them that all they need to know is that which is in the Bible" I looked over to see the sun had just hit the perfect angle. The sky was glowing deep maroon, wished her the best, and donated ten dollars just to thank her for the thought provoking inspirational words and great stories. Travelling Christians, ones who go from place to place with humble intentions of spreading the Good News of the Lord all have beautiful stories to tell, stories of rising from broken households, of sinful pasttimes, of hedonistic tendencies, all coming together with a realization of a higher power insisting that life goes beyond the material wants we have.

I don't know if Hayley read it that way. But that's what I saw. "Well," I said motioning towards the sunset, "thank you so much, but that right behind me is God's call for me. And He wants me to get His good side."

To quote some of the most beautiful lyrics I've ever read:
After all the sick cosmo jokes that happen to me
After all the pain and torture I've been through
I have someone like you.
I guess Karma is real
I've been through so much shit that I am finally rewarded with someone like you...

Words I find myself reading over and over again from time to time. Not in the Eros sense, but more the Karma part. When I met God, and gave God my parking change for a bus ticket, my Karma was rewarded by the delay sparing my car. When I gave ten dollars to this roaming Christian who had very little to offer but so much to tell, I was given a beautiful photo shoot in one of the most difficult conditions to take pictures in.

On the way back to the car, it was cold, but karma wasn't done yet. Going up the Redondo City walk, Hayley and I ran into a couple of lowly men, one of whom was strumming a guitar. The other was somebody who had been with him, and had been admiring his skill for a very long time. This other guy motioned towards the two of us, didn't even ask for spare change, didn't ask for food, just our time. He wanted us to hear this guy with a guitar, insisting he could play just about anything we could imagine. I requested Steve Howe, a lesser known figure but after only a milisecond of racking his memory, began to play "Mood for a Day." Steve Howe is the lead guitarist for Yes, but I wasn't expecting anybody to know that he had a solo career. Let alone, know how to play any of his latin inspired songs. The breeze kicked up, the horizon's shadow was now cast over us, but just listening to this faceless musician play made me feel so warm inside.

As for the other guy, he also sat with me and Hayley just nodding his head along with the melody, clenching his own bible under his arm.

I'm not a religious person. I don't consider myself very in touch with my own spirituality, and never considered myself to have an active relationship with God. I believe He's there, in some form or another, but had a phase of ridiculing everything remotely religious. I had a few years of being zealously critical of the Church, and withdrew from it years ago. Ever since, I only go sparsely, once every few months. But in my whole upbringing at Catholic school, Jesuit high school, and dependable Church going for many years, none of that could ever compare to the amount of spiritual signs I have found that day. I'm not a religious person. I'm not going to jam a Bible in your face, demand you read it, beat up some homosexuals, and damn everybody to hell. I'm not religious. But God is everywhere. Think about that. You just have to know the signs when you see them.