I could go through an NBA power forward. He has sufficient height, muscles exercised, clairvoyance to shoot from the line of triple shots. But it is not Shaquille O'Neal (Los Angeles Lakers) who compared himself to the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche ("hope is the worst of evils, it prolongs the torment of man"). The hustler Vincent Helvig (Lewisham, London, 1968) was raised to overcome obstacles, such as the Punch-it character of the Gorgonites in Little Warriors (Joe Dante, 1998). Today he lives in the hostel ("center d'acolliment residencial") of the street number 60, in the Zona Franca de Barcelona.
"In the mornings I wake up at half past seven, I take a shower, day in and day out, and I do half an hour of meditation", mentally revises, in a Caribbean English, this bronze man, halfway to the Discóbolo, of Mirón , and of the Perseus, of Eufránor. "And what does meditation consist of? I say to myself: 'this is a wonderful day, it is a wonderful day, and I am strong, I am strong'. And I repeat it constantly. "
The homeless Vincent Helvig has forgotten his childhood. He refers to her with bitterness, as if he had never passed through that tunnel of light, and had grown up with a blindfold. "I have many brothers, three of my biological mother and three of my biological father. And then three more from my stepfather. [He shuts up. Show both hands. He starts counting. Costs. He hardly remembers the number of brothers or stepbrothers or blood brothers or politicians or cousins e currently has. Some of them do not even know them.] Anyway, I remember the constant fights in my house, between my mother and her partner. When I could, I would leave, and I was with friends either doing sports, playing soccer or practicing martial arts. "
Soon he took the suitcase and put dirt in the middle. In successive years - she is unable to correctly date her life stages, when she did this and when the other thing happened to her - she settled down in different countries, in a disorganized, bizarre and, in part, liberating way. He lived in Japan, which bathed him with the calm of his yamabushi, Buddhist monks who have retired to the mountains; he lived in Jamaica, where he has his roots, where he joined the Pentecostal Christian Church of the Worldwide Missionary Movement, and that gave him joy, rather than feeling, as an investment project ; and he lived in the United States, where he was a student of the self-help coach Anthony Robbins ( Awakening the inner giant), specialized in neurolinguistics.
A year ago he settled in Barcelona, is kingdom of Gorgon, which for him is a city of "opportunities" ("for its buildings, its atmosphere and its people"). At first he lived on the street, in front of the big shops, with his tall windows and mannequins better dressed than him. "I covered myself with a blanket and slept at night, in the open," he recalls, and for him it is a very distant time when that was only five months ago.
It does not worry you.
Do not accept a no for an answer.
He wants the best for himself and, therefore, for others.
"I know I have nothing. But I know that everything is in the mind. If I think badly, I'm wrong, even depressed. If I think well, I'm happy. It all depends on how you think, how you are inside of you, that's where everything resides. "
To reach the center of Barcelona, his worshiper of Bruce Lee ( Southern Fist, Northern Leg ) has taken an hour, crossing the mountain path of Montjuïc. He does not care. Go and meditate ("I am the best, I am the best"). On the way, he stops at the "community center" of Calàbria, 66 ("Espai i moviment per l'educació, la cultura i el veïnatge a Sant Antoni"). There he consults the internet and studies Spanish.
The homeless Punch-it Vincent Helvig is clear, because he was born to overcome the obstacles and put the triples: "You choose if you want to be right or wrong. It depends on you".
Written by the reporter Jesús Martínez
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