Week 7 ~ Character

Lohman Gardiner. A big bear of a man with a thick beard and at first glance he has a rigid demeanor that doesn’t melt away when you first meet him either. When we first met I definitely thought his family name was strange, and being a little critical I thought he reflected this name; a little odd and maybe eccentric. And definitely I thought he looked like a mean old lumberjack. However, I was pleasantly surprised after having one conversation with him and I couldn’t have been more wrong. Sure he was unusual but that is what I love about him, he is a man I respect, admire and have a lot of fun with. And his name is a name of value that conjures up images of integrity and selflessness.

Lohman lives in the woods behind my grandmother’s house in an attempt to escape the decaying world outside. He is a solitary person who believes in the Earth and her gifts. He doesn’t have running water or electricity because he chooses not to support big conglomerates that damage the Earth. He provides for himself and makes a living from his hands. Every year, giving so much care and attention to this garden, for this is what will nourish him. He is also a beekeeper, having over 300 hives he takes to pollination every year. Not having much of an education doesn’t stop him from do what he wants to do. He knows a lot about farming, beekeeping, dogs, real estate, small business and just life. He’s always trying to teach others and learn also. “Life is one long lesson,” he always says. He doesn’t need much to survive, he has little to no material things that he needs to feel at ease or happy with like most people I know. His house is round and small, unusually beautiful, made from wood that he milled from his land. A wood stove is in the center of the room leading up a pipe and out through a circle in the roof, he always keeps it rather cool in there but adds a little extra wood on the fire when I’m over because I hate being cold. There’s not much else in the room, a small table with two chairs, a cot, bookshelf and desk, everything is handmade by himself. He hangs things from the ceiling, planes and origami; there are also dried herbs, flowers and garlic. The house smells of rosemary, lavender, the wood stove, garlic and honeycomb. Lohman smells of this too, it’s comforting in some way, it never makes you uneasy and I think this is why the bees don’t sting him when he’s tending to a hive. Even the bees like him.

He tells me stories of what it was like when he was a kid. His father died when he was young and his mother was a useless drunk, being the oldest and trying to take care of his sister and brother he would sometimes have to steal just not to starve. She soon abandoned the kids, and then they were worked on a farm by their foster parents. Lohman learned to grow up quick, fending for himself and his siblings along with hard manual labor at a young age. The funny thing is he holds no bitterness about his foster parents, he feels that they helped make him who he is, a hard worker. And his mother, well, I can sense the tension in his voice when he talks about her but he says that she helped shove him towards a beginning that got him to this point in his life. “Everything happens for a reason and we all should work with what we got and never feel sorry for ourselves”.

As soon as he was old enough he took off running from the farm, not knowing where he was heading, just knowing that it was time to go. He hitch hiked across the United States, picking crops to earn money, apples, corn, oranges, sometimes even marijuana. He says it was a lot easier, safer and cheaper to be a hitcher back then, these days it is way too dangerous. He tells me never to try and hitch hike, “There’s too many weirdo’s these days, it’s not like back then when you could actually trust a person.” This has always been a big concern with Lohman, the changes in the world not being for the better and the lack of trust.

When I first met him, like I do with everyone I meet, I shook his hand and kept eye contact when we were speaking. I’m not sure if it is because of his experiences with people being deceitful or the fact that people instinctively try to hide the truth but he has a thing about people being able to look him in the eye when talking to him. He feels that it is ill mannered and typically means your hiding something. He always makes an impression of you when you first meet, but I guess most people do that also. He’s very hesitant to open the door to new people and there are very few that he trusts and lets into his life. But once he does you are really able to see what a unique spirit he is. I am glad that I had the opportunity to meet him; he is the one of the most interesting persons I have met thus far in my life.