Elena Davis' Blog

A Hero’s Journey

// March 5th, 2010 // Inspiring

One of the people that I’ve had the privilege of meeting over the past year is native Texan, Joseph “Cowboy” Benson.

I met Joseph, now the head of food services at SEARCH, a charity advocate for homeless in Houston, while photographing for I Am Waters. Formerly a successful restaurateur in Los Angeles he returned to Houston and, through the same  talent, skill and hard work built a life that encompassed everything that a person could want; a home, wife, kids, cars and a thriving catering business. Joseph shared the details of his life before his accident and what his life is like now, relating the shift that emerged from his descent into internal darkness, living life without a home and how his experience changed who he is as a person.

We sat in his office at SEARCH and spoke. Joseph shared with me how the course of events in his life unfolded, events that many people, had they physically survived, simply wouldn’t have survived emotionally or mentally. His calm, centered demeanor became a silent distraction for me. He started at his beginning…

Joseph grew up in a family that was financially secure and loving. He always had clothes, toys and the best food. His mother was also a gifted cook. He was loved and cared for.

Joseph shared his experience of living life in LA for approx 5 years and owning a very successful restaurant on Pico and La Cienega named the “Gumbo Pit”. He then returned to Texas to start a catering company and a family.

It was on his way home from catering an event at his mother’s church one night that Joseph was in a terrible wreck with a large truck that claimed both his legs and 2 ½  years of his life. That’s how long Joseph was in the hospital, 2½ years. The medical bills piled up and slowly he started liquidating his assets to pay his expenses.

He spent through his kid’s college funds, sold his home and cars and sunk deeper and deeper into debt, despair and an addiction to pain medication. His final resting place was the Pierce elevated bridge.

Through the most peaceful brown eyes Joseph said “I knew if I could survive, as bad as it was, things would change. I stayed under that bridge, but I never lost Hope”. He shared with me how important it is to stay connected. “If you become completely disconnected from the norms of society and become a part of a sub-culture of homelessness, it’s hard, if not impossible to come back. Not even doctors understand the phases of homelessness”. As Joseph explained it to me from his experience, “People become homeless mentally first, and then the physical inevitably follows”.

“Once homeless you immediately fall into a cycle where meeting your most basic needs dictate your day”.

Two of the ways in which Joseph survived being homeless, he proudly shared, the first of which he had learned as a child in the Boy Scouts and the second of which is his skill of being a great cook.

He got 3 empty coffee cans, punched holes in one of them to hold fire, wheeled himself in his wheel chair with the second can to a body shop on Webster and asked a mechanic there to cut the can open and flatten it into a square so he could fit it over the top of the first can, as a makeshift burner.

With the 3rd can he had the body shop cut it down 3 inches and put a hole in the back of it. He then inserted a stick making a pot out of it to cook ramen noodles in.

Slowly, more and more homeless people were drawn to Joseph and started hanging around him. As they did, he would cook for them. His friends would show up daily with found or foraged food and give it to Joseph with the request that he cook it to be a shared meal for the growing circle of friends. His ability to cook made it possible for Joseph to survive on the street. His friends from the street did the work that Joseph couldn’t do from a wheel chair.

In addition he had the blessing of “Food Not Bombs” a group of kids 13-21 that are referred to as dumpster divers. They retrieve discarded food from restaurants and grocery stores and deliver it to the homeless.

The kids made fast friends with Joseph. One of the oldest kids who was from a nice family in the Heights said to Joseph,”If you ever get cold or wet you can come sleep on my porch”. The boy gave Joseph a sleeping bag that was used to sleep on the boys porch with, in addition to being invited by the family to take regular showers.

As Joseph spoke it became increasingly clear to me that he had been on what Joseph Campbell describes as the “Hero’s Journey” and I so respected him for having made it back to society, back from the underworld both from within and without to deliver the “ultimate boon.”

He delivers through traveling around the country being a guest speaker, sharing his story and serving as a board member of SEARCH. He returns regularly in SEARCH outreach vans to the same spot under the Pierce elevated bridge and the very streets he once called home, guiding other homeless back to a better life.

There is an unmistakable radiance that comes from someone who has traveled down, down to the to the darkest depths within themselves and made the return. It’s not a radiance that one can see with physical eyes, although the by-product of it reads as peace and certainty. It’s a feeling of betterment from having been in that person’s presence.

After an hour and a half with Joseph, I only had one question left….”If you could change anything about your life so far, what would it be?” Through soft quiet eyes, hands folded in his lap he smiled at me and thoughtfully replied “Nothing, I wouldn’t change a thing”.