Ed

2008/09/20

This is Ed. I've passed by this man many times and though I've always been intrigued and drawn toward him, until today had not shared more than a "hi" and a few passing nods.

Ed was left homeless after a divorce with his wife and now lives on the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia. He worked as a science teacher, but now you can often find him on the bricks of the downtown mall where he makes money reading Tarot cards for those who care to stop. He has decades of experience and according to several people who passed through our conversation he is very good at what he does. He stressed the importance that no card can tell your future and there are no "psychics" in the traditional sense. The cards, like everything he says, should be taken as a meditation. In his gut he felt he could not read for me today because I was supposed to take something else away from our interaction. We talked about photography, Hinduism, Christianity, books, time, science, and more. Ed spends most of his weekdays reading when business is otherwise slow. Before parting ways, he happily agreed to a photo.

I leave you with a quote from Ed. It fit so naturally and effortlessly into the conversation that I don't know if it was scripted or a product of the moment. I almost missed it...

"Every leaf that falls,
every cockroach that crawls,
it all has a purpose."

This picture is #1 in my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at www.100Strangers.com