_ night in the ozark national forest in the north-east of arkansas. clear sky & stars, only the long trail of a plane visible high above, flying east to west.
_ joe brown came over to ask about the cameras, and we got to talking. the tell-tale scars on his chest are from multiple open-heart surgeries, starting at one years old, and continuing long past the expiration date predicted by his doctors. his most recent came six months ago, when three plastic valves were replaced and a cardiac defibrillator inserted. the shocks that the defibrillator automatically administered (sometimes accidentally and at random, quiet moments of the day) helped bring on a one-day personal record of three strokes, partially paralyzing his left hand.
_ his father stays on as a truck driver, working past retirement to keep the medical benefits necessary to pay for his son's procedures. for his own part, joe is studying for his license in motorcycle body repair and restoration. he's rebuilding an old cycle for a future trip to georgia. during a recent repair, however, a bolt, fittingly, fell into the gas tank.
_ he was at the campground for a family reunion, and while we lay in the dark by the river looking at the stars, he said his family still refers to him as 'joe with the heart problem'. they can't accept that he's living and still living, despite twenty-six years of sickness. if his heart beat rises too high, the defibrillator shocks his heart into a normal rhythm, so he keeps himself calm, speaking with measured sentences, moving directly and with patience.
_ his mother twirled glow sticks by the campfire, and julian, three years-old, carried an electric lamp from one chair to the next in the circle around. he was fascinated by electric flash.
_ casualties from the heat plaguing the nearby wakarusa music festival were camped out by the water. here there was just enough of a current to stir the breeze.
_ looking down from the road out of cass, we knew we were in the right place. the campsite was just up from the rapids, almost to the slope of the hill.