Scott

About a week after arriving at L'Abri, Jade and I were heading out for a morning run and a man with a cane stumbled up the gravel drive towards us. His hair was long and unruly, salt and pepper, and his beard had not been cleaned up in awhile. He wore a black leather jacket, crooked glasses, and jeans with white paint splattered all over them. He held his cane in one hand and a rolled cigarette in the other--a pouch of loose tobacco peaking out from under his jacket. As if his appearance weren't interesting enough, it got better as soon as he opened his mouth. His voice was hoarse, as if he had lost it from long conversations at the pub or a few too many cigarettes over the years. But a scar on his neck caught my attention and it remained an unanswered question until a few fdays later.

Over the course of the last month we have come to know Scott well. We assumed he was around 50 years old, but he is only 40. We assumed he was a homeless hobo without a place to go, but he is one of the most intellectual people we have ever met. After awhile, almost every single one of my assumptions about Scott has been wrong, and I have been put in my place about judging a person by their outward appearance. At first, every time Republicans or America was mentioned, Scott flared up and called anyone having anything to do with either of these labels "an idiot!" (He is American, but has been travelling through Europe for over two years, without a place to call home...and he likes it that way. He wants to revoke his American citizenship just so that he doesn't have to be called "american." Yes, I know, if you are an American Republican reading this, you are probably already getting frustrated with this man...and this is how Jade was the first few weeks too : ) (Everything the two of them talked about ended in a heated argument or debate.) Scott, in different ways on different days, referred also to Jade as an idiot and often asked Henk (the leader here) if he would translate Scott's arguments for Jade and I so that we could understand them. (Good times!)

But we got past the emotions of being called ignorant, and realized that Scott is just a really cool guy who has also had his long string of misfortune. He's been pronounced dead twice (once at 27 when he got stabbed 27 times on the roof of his San Francisco apartment while reading a book title "Razor Sharp". This is why his voice is hoarse...because he lost a vocal cord in the stabbing and now only has one left.) His first wife was his sweetheart from Kindergarten and also his first kiss. She was killed in a car accident. His second marriage ended in divorce. It seems that he is estranged from his father. He says his mother is an "evil" woman, and was not a part of his life. He has been travelling around to various communities in Europe to just live among the people for awhile and learn all sorts of different things. He is a free lance writer, and sends his articles to various magazines for publication. He is a genius jazz pianist and can play any music you put in front of him (he's great!!!) He dated James Dobson's dauther and Frank Sinatra's grand-daughter (or neice?) He is above genius level with an IQ of 198, a devout Catholic and a raving Liberal (as are most Europeans we've met)...and the list goes on, and on, and on.

Now that we've gotten to know him, Scott is one of my favorite people in the world. Not because I think everything he says about himself and the world is 100% true (did I mention he reads a book a day...at least?! I think fact and fiction lines may have been blurring.....?) But he is a great guy and I learn more just talking to him than I think I learned from years in school. In a week we may never see Scott again, but I'm really glad to know him now.