I met a man with nothing who decided to paint a mountain. Even though he had nothing, he had everything.
I met Leonard Knight a few years ago. He died in 2014. He was the most intelligent person I’ve ever met and I’m someone who graduated from college. I had the good luck of being able to spend an entire day with him in 2008 when the 115 degree temperature scared away all the other tourists.
Leonard taught me this one basic but very important thing that has stuck with me to this day: do not rush into trying to change others. Don’t waste your breath on those who don’t care about you. Keep silent and let the true nature of those around you unfold naturally.
Leonard told me the story of how religious people who belonged to churches wanted to co-opt Salvation Mountain and claim it as their own. He said that religious people are the worst. He told me that now he never mentions any of his deeply spiritual beliefs to anyone. The only time he talks about them is if someone is really curious and asks him a direct question.
At this point, I feel it necessary to mention that I'm an atheist and I have a mild aversion to Jesus freaks and other religious zealots. This is mainly because I grew up in an intentional Christian community as a kid and I had religion violently shoved into so many of my orifices, that I have learned to not get deeply involved with them.
No one religion appears to be singularly great, and I can usually quickly find the holes in logic upon a careful investigation of every religion on the planet. But unlike most atheists, I'm open to learning from absolutely anyone, if they have something useful to offer and I accidentally cross paths with them. I can learn from a Christian just as easily as a Nihilist.
But Christians are generally angry with me for not believing in their hogwash. It's funny, I'm not angry when they don't believe in rational, first principles logic, but they are supremely angry that I don't adopt their child-like notions of the universe and life itself. Absurd.
On his mountain are written the words, “God Is Love”. I asked Leonard about that.
He said, “Love Jesus and keep it simple.” He went on to explain it further, “People complicate things. It’s quite simple if you love. I love Jesus. There’s no need to complicate anything.”
I felt the deep well of happiness and comfort come from inside him. It felt good to be around Leonard.
This astounded me because here he was without any of the comforts of life. He had nothing really, but he seemed not to be in need of anything. He owned no property (his mountain was out in the middle of nowhere in the blistering desert and belonged to the state) and he had never married. He had no children, no money, no income stream, no internet, no phone, no Facebook. He slept every night by himself in his truck in the desert with no air conditioning, no refrigerator, no electricity. Alone in the middle of nowhere. And yet, he was happy. I could see it on his face.
He had a bunch of cats with no names, but he had 2 things which 99% of the human population doesn’t have: happiness and acceptance.
Even though he had no money, he was given everything without ever having to ask for it. People gave willingly.
He said he woke up happy every morning. People traveled from all over the world to see him. They brought him everything he needed to live. But most important of all, they brought him paint so he could continue painting his mountain.
Leonard was a giving person, too. He had postcards made showing his mountain. He insisted that every guest take one or two for free. He also gave away free DVDs that a documentary filmmaker made about Salvation Mountain. You see, it was in sharing his love that Leonard truly lived. He lived to share and loved others unconditionally.
His art wasn’t that great. I’ve seen better art and more talented artists. But I’ve never met an artist who loved to share more than Leonard. It was his pure expression and outpouring of love that made me realize he was perhaps the greatest teacher for me personally.
He comes as close to being authentic as is humanely possible. I imagine he was exactly the same way as a child. He truly lived his potential.
I was lucky enough to have been able to record one his songs he sang. The song was about a girl. Before he sang it, he told us that he never married, but he said he remembered a girl who he admired once. I shot a video of him singing and you can watch Leonard sing his song here:
Meeting Leonard reminded me that no one person is alike. Not everyone is designed to be in a relationship. Sometimes the relationship we have is with our art. For some, that is enough. Some people are by design meant to be alone because there exists no other compatible person who has crossed their path.
There’s something I didn’t tell you about my visit. I went to Salvation Mountain with a boyfriend. I left Salvation Mountain alone. Leonard showed me what deep love looked like and I realized that what I had was a fake version of it.
I’m sad that Leonard died but I realize I need to carry on his lessons. I consider myself to be an atheist and Leonard was certainly a Jesus freak but these descriptions do not matter.