He sets out in his walker with his hunting rifle strapped to his back and tied to his body with a white string resembling a long shoelace… With one real leg and the other prosthetic lower leg, Mr. W makes his way around the Rez, gaining respect from everyone around him and anyone who knows him. Mr. W often walks on the desolate desert highways on the Tohono O’odham Nation with his heart wide open and head held high.

People like Mr. W are the type of humans who will have a place in my heart until I die.

Because of the subtle humility of his soul. Because of his ability to be present and share unconditionally with people he doesn’t even know. Because I am not even sure if he has teeth, yet he has the most outrageously heart-warming smile I have ever seen. Because he went to Vietnam 10 years before I was born. Because I met him in a deserted dump on the Tohono O’odham Nation where he animatedly talked to me while standing in his walker with his rifle tied to his 65 year-old torso. Because he is not afraid to tell me he thinks I am beautiful. Because he is a survivor and a ex-Vietnam Marine. Because he lives with next to nothing and lacks complaints about anything. Because he is my teacher and because the skin on his face reminds me of the most Sacred and Mystical Map in the whole entire world and because he showed me Gorilla Mountain.

That is why I love Mr. W.

I went out with 2 other women searching for a missing migrant person. We picked up Mr. W to escort us and guide us through 4-wheeling back-roads on the Rez. I drove on roads I never knew I could navigate. I feel in love with a soul born and raised on the Tohono O’odham Nation, a stone throw away from my Tucson home. Yet I know nothing about this Reservation so close to where I live and breathe. Why? Why am I so oblivious to that which is so close?

I went out looking for migrants to help, and fond a whole new world of honor. All I can do now is pray that Mr. W will allow me to become a closer friend. I want to make beautiful photographs of him and his life… His reality is so beautifully apocalyptic and Divine to my eye and soul…