Michael

When I was a student, I rented a room in a three bedroom apartment with a shared kitchen and bathroom. I was one step up from broke, hungry most of the time, and I had a dim view of the human condition. One of my roommates was a Korean engineering student who's name I never learned, who never had any visitors, and near as I could tell, never left his room except to go to class. My other roommate was Michael, a man in his 50s on disability with Bipolar Disorder. Michael wrote poems on yellow legal pads in green magic marker and slipped them under my door - most often they were accompanied by the same Kerouac quote -"All is well, practice kindness, heaven is at hand". I couldn't believe it then, Michael - and I don't believe it now, but twenty years later I still hear your message.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQoDA62NVG0