Silver Lining

I believe that people should love. That is what everyone is looking for. They may show it in different ways but everyone wants to be loved.

[moleskinelovers]

Everyone could do with more self love.

Poetry creds to Michelle K. 

(top: Stop Measuring Yourself) (bottom: Radical Self Love)

[witsallbeendone]

This is how I drive now. :D #alltheengagedgirlsaredoingit

[delnortewest-deactivated2023022]

Mark Anthony Dobransky on Flickr.

Via Flickr:

I met a man today standing at the end of the Morrison bridge, out on one of my many walks around the East Side industrial area in Portland, one of the few areas in Portland that is anything like the city I remember growing up in. As I passed the man I said hello, he asked me, “Did you take a picture of that up there?” he said as he pointed up to a massive iron sculpture erected not too long ago. I replied in the affirmative.

He looked at me dead in the eyes and asked if I could see all those crosses up there and if I knew how many crosses there were. “I have no clue” I replied while pretending to count them. He looked up and then back to me and he said “How do you suppose they got that way up there?” I told him that I did not know but that it may have been cranes. He said “I have a theory about how they got all those crosses up there. They must have done it on the ground and then hoisted them up in sections, because they certainly didn’t stand up there welding all those crosses together.”

I thought about it and it did make a lot of sense. I thought to myself, I wonder how this man knows about welding and construction. I wonder where he comes from and what he used to do. All of a sudden without any prompting he told me “I walked across that bridge 35 years ago, the Burnside.” “The Burnside Bridge?” I replied. “Yeah the Burnside, when I walked across it the water below was a beautiful blue.” I laughed and said, “Well it’s not so blue anymore is it?” We both laughed and I told him a bit about how long I’d been in Portland and that I remembered the river 20 years ago. 

Suddenly he bounded off shouting at me to take his picture in front of the giant iron statue, he said to make sure I got the crosses in there. He was very adamant about being photographed with the crosses. I took several snapshots of him posing in front of the massive sculpture. When I was done he walked back over to me.

The man opened his wallet which he had out already because people kept handing him change during our conversation, and he showed me his Oregon Driver License. I looked at his ID and said out loud “Mark Anthony Dobransky.” “Yep that’s me.” He replied to my almost involuntary reading of his name. Mr. Dobransky then gave me some advice “He said if you’re gonna jump off a bridge, don’t do it over the water. Do it over the train tracks.” I commented that it was solid advice and that I’d remember it. I smiled and thought it was rather funny and odd. 

Mr. Dobransky then told me a story from his youth, he told me about growing up in the Cascade Locks and going to high school there. He asked me if I knew the Bridge of the Gods, I said yes, he told me about a boy he went to school with and that he had jumped off the bridge many years ago. He asked me “Guess where he jumped off?” I replied to him rather knowingly and smiling “Not into the water, right?” “No right on to the train tracks!” We chuckled for a minute, even though it was a rather sad and to the point story. He turned to me and said “I guess he wanted to make sure he didn’t survive or drown and suffer.” I agreed. Then he said “I’ve thought about suicide before. Still do sometimes.” I looked at him and I said “Me too.” “Really?” he replied, seemingly skeptical for a split second. “I said yes, many times in the past, I really thought about it. I’ve been to that place.”

I knew how he felt, I had been there. Not on the streets like that, but I knew how it felt to be hopeless. I just stood in silence for a few moments. Reflecting on life and on where this man is in his life. I thought about how hard it must be for people who don’t know suffering to really understand what others are going through when they suffer, when they give up, when they lose all hope. A man in a delivery van pulled up and offered Mr. Dobransky some change and after he retrieved it from the man in the van, he came back to me and asked me for one thing. He asked me “Hey you know that photo of me? Can you post that to… what’s it called… FACEBOOK! Can you post it to Facebook and put my name on it Mark Anthony Dobransky, D-O-B-R-A-N-S-K-Y, find my daughter and tell her I love her?”

He didn’t want change or food from me. I didn’t have any on me anyway. He just wanted me to let people know he was still alive and that he loved them. I told him I would and handed him my business card, shook his hand and asked him to take care of himself.

As I walked across the bridge back to downtown, I thought again about empathy and human connection. I reflected on my own experiences in life and how I perceived the experiences of other human beings. I thought to myself, perhaps the only real way to connect to one another is to know what it’s like to be in a situation similar to another person. We can never truly know how they feel, but perhaps shared experiences are the closest we get to understanding other people. Maybe I’m full of shit. Maybe there is no way to know how others truly feel deep inside. What I do know for sure is that I’m a man of my word and that I was serious when I made a pledge to help those who would reach out and ask for it. So my contribution to the world for today is to share this portrait of Mr. Dobransky in the hopes that it may someday reach his daughter.

UPDATE: With the help of Facebook (click link for the fb thread) and 50,000+ views, thousands of shares and comments, I received his daughter’s address and have sent her prints of the photo with his message on the back. I hope they find her in good cheer and good health. 

[witsallbeendone]

We found her on Pinterest! Take that moment to do what you can folks.

[witsallbeendone]

These were a lot of work but they taste delicious! #bloodyglasscupcakes #halloween #cupcakes #candyglass #Moldiv

[witsallbeendone]

Show the world we want a phone worth keeping! #phonebloks http://thndr.it/15eLEMU

[witsallbeendone]

#Wine and #cuddling with Sweet Bea for the #Beavers game this week! #rollbeavs

[unchartedlust]

I think lists are first step in making anything happen. I probably will find many other things I want to do that are not on this list, but this is at least a start because I want to experience all of the beauty of this world and live every day as if it’s another adventure. So here is a list of things I am determined to do when I travel the world:

Make snow angels in the Antarctic snow.

Carve a poem into the ancient rock of the Grand Canyon.

Build a yurt with a fireplace in the Mongolian grasslands.

Sail throughout all of the Maldives, find a tiny uninhabited island, and enjoy the beach in beautiful isolation.

Take a selfie with one of the Easter Island stone heads.

Take another selfie sipping Himalayan tea with a Tibetan monk.

And attempt to take a selfie with a polar bear while sipping a cold glass bottle of Coke. I will try my best to survive.

Eat the best sushi in the world at Jiro’s restaurant in Tokyo.

Iceland. Do everything and anything in Iceland. Period.

Sing Misty Mountains with a group of friends in a New Zealand tavern.

Dance Salsa on the moonlit cobble stone streets of Havana.

Smoke Hookah and sip mint tea in a Moroccan alley-way cafe, preferably with very loud and old wise Arab men who may offer me wisdom that will change my view of the world.

Experience some californication by having passionate sex on a Californian beach with a woman I love as the sun is rising.

Go to Buenos Aires. Buy a motorcycle and ride that motorcycle throughout all of South America and Central America until I hit Mexico. Through all of the small towns and barely traveled roads.

Scream off the top of my lungs about how much I love life on top of Machu Pichu and hear it echo throughout the cloud-covered mountains!

Get lost in the marvelous city of Shanghai. No directions. No maps. No phone. Just the city and I. Living in the moment.

Drink Starbucks in some obscure African country. Don’t judge, I find novelty in silly things.

Visit Greenland. Just because I can.

Search for the Arc of the Covenant in the deserts of the Middle East.

Travel with a Bedouin tribe for an entire month, listen to their stories and myths of the desert, and marvel at how beautiful the stars look in the Sahara.

Converse about the meaning of life with a Hindu priest in some incense-scented Indian temple far away from any city.

Take a coffee tour throughout all of Portland, Oregon.

Stroll along the Seine River and kiss a beautiful girl under a Parisian bridge.

Party up in Melbourne, Australia because I have a feeling that Aussies really know how to party since they have great taste in music overall.

Buy a domesticated silver fox in Russia so I can have him as my faithful companion on all of my adventures. His name shall be Bill Murray. Yes, Bill Murray. Not Bill. Not Murray. Bill Murray.

Drink whiskey and sing songs in a Dublin pub with a bunch of drunken Irish people.

And last, but most definitely not least, fall in love with this world and see beauty in all of its tiny details.

[witsallbeendone]

I love that Portland is on here. :)

[kurtlechan-deactivated20211031]

Handful of bunnies.

[witsallbeendone]

$15 for a 1/2 flat of HUGE blackberries and 7 peaches picked of the tree. Not bad at all!

[witsallbeendone]

#crabing and #fishing this morning! Here's to hoping for a delicious salmon and crab dinner tonight! (at Nehalem Jetty North)

[witsallbeendone]

Thanks Katy! They are perfect! #bestieshoes #orangeandteal @mrskatytinker

[niknak79]

Okay, who’s the wise guy?

[witsallbeendone]

Hey, I drive by this every morning on my way to work! It's in a suburb of Portland, OR. :)

[witsallbeendone]

Flowers from John :) #lovehim #spoiledandiknowit #sunflowers #justbecause

[witsallbeendone]

#camping #firstworldproblems (at Nehalem Bay State Park Campground)

[zodiaccity]

Zodiac Gemini: What They’re Like

[makeawishitsadream]

[venture-deactivated20180822]

#BucketList Item No. 16 | Backpacking Across Europe

Inspired by @Anna_Herrmann

Typography by Leah Flores

Befriend locals. Speak different languages. Trek beyond the beaten trails. Use the miles you could earn with your Venture Card to keep your inner explorer exploring. Reblog to add this to your #BucketList.

[witsallbeendone]

Ahhh! I went to college with this girl! Congrats on the big time deal Leah!