We recently spent some time with Stryder, and heard about some of his experiences in life. Turns out he traveled his way to the Haight in the late-90s and now considers it his home. Here’s a bit of his story. We think you’ll dig getting to know this vagabond — and his sweet kitty Athena.
Stryder: I’ve been on the street since I was roughly 13. That was something I chose to do. I felt the Haight pulling at the strings in my heart. There’s no other place like it. No matter how hard you look, you’ll never find a place like Haight-Ashbury anywhere.
Haight Street Voice: So, no school, but you’re obviously a smart young man.
S: There are different ways to educate yourself. School will only teach you what other people think you should know. It doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s what you need to know.
I was basically raised by my grandpa, who very well could’ve been slightly crazy. He tended to go off on conspiracy theory rants, talking about how television and radio are evil. He liked to read a lot, and collected different items with weird symbology in them. He was obsessed chapters that had been taken out of the Bible. One of them was “The Keys of Solomon” where Solomon is talking about a Templar Knight of the Temple of Solomon, which was essentially built to protect the Arc of the Covenant and the Holy Land — and I’ve always remembered it:
“A Templar Knight is truly a fearless one, and doubly armed, for just as his body is protected by the armor of steel, his soul is protected by the armor of faith. Therefore he need fear neither demons nor men.”
Whether or not you believe in it, the wording is beautiful. I think in itself it should give people hope hearing something like that because it’s about keeping faith and hope. If you ever lose those things, that’s when there is none. But if you don’t lose them, they’re always there.
HSV: What’s your passion?
S: Truth. To find the truth in things.
