Breakfast meeting

Amy Weatherholtz

Understanding the truth is hard for people to do because today seems like a fib world. One little fib leads to another until the domino effect unfolds and truth is forgotten. The opportunity to have breakfast recently with LA Times columnist Steve Lopez, the award-winning author of “The Soloist,” brought light to the word “truth.”

Lopez took something as common as a homeless man and turned it into an outreach for the people who are mentally ill and homeless. We never know when we will be faced with a situation that requires such a decision. Lopez stayed true to the word “journalist.” He spent a night on skid row to experience the life of Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, a homeless man and the subject of his novel.

The truth is the world we live in, does not compare to the beautified adjectives used to describe it. The ability to have the three necessities to live: air, water and shelter, are taken for granted. Lopez met his main character as he tried to feed the monster [newspaper column] deadline.

He spotted Ayers standing in front of a Beethoven statue, playing a two-string violin. There was no case opened to accept money. Finding this odd, Lopez approached Ayers to find out more. The story unfolds after Lopez discovers Ayers was a classically trained musician, who dropped out of Julliard after developing schizophrenia.

Ayers chose to live on the streets so as not to burden his family with his medical condition. Today you can find him playing away the sounds in his head, and living in an apartment at LAMP, a shelter in the center of Skid Row. This only came after several years of Lopez working with Ayers and LAMP. Amid the struggle, a most “meaningful friendship” developed, Lopez said.

I spent a week during the summer reading Lopez’s columns, exploring his book and watching the movie. The experiences left me at an emotional state of inspiration.

Truth is the inspiration. As inspiring journalists, we are taught to be fair, concise and accurate with our reporting. When looking at Lopez’s overall dedication to telling Ayers story, it reminds me that truth is what it is, nothing less.

The truth is not a seduction of beauty. It is more likely to be the blaze of Hell. Painful.