about angel

i happen to have written in the past and it's been some time. i put in the towel on journalism. but amid
daily to dos and longer-term to dos, i had a chance to watch a slide show i put together two years ago. it was about a demolition contractor.
in a minute or so, the audience heard of how he was trying to drum up work, how he wouldn't give up once he started the ball rolling. he talked about how he
was looking for his chance.
i hoped he got that chance years ago.
what you didn't hear, according to him, was that he was an enforcer of sorts who beat people up with his fists, who was called upon to be the muscle for
various gangs or groups; there were stories of his temper and how hot headed he was; how he changed after his daughter was born and that he misses her; there was the stint in jail for his crimes. there was a lot more to the man than simply someone posting flyers in a neighborhood of chicago -- his puerto rican heritage; how he was loved by the old ladies in his neighborhood yet feared by caucasians in other neighborhoods; then the stories surfaced of how he disarmed those same people with his well-mannered speech and behavior; the talk of wall eye (sp) , in his words, "Delicious."
there are still some cob webs there, but i had to share that there's more to the man than the brief slide show presented of him.
and yes, at this moment, i miss those moments of being a journalist. not that i can't find or experience them as someone out of the newspaper field. but nostalgia bites you when you least expect it. here's to those still trying to tell the stories that need to be told, regardless of profession or the source of their paycheck.