Not long before we met John “Mule” Sears, he had been traveling through the mountains near the small town of Ely, Nevada, not far from the Utah border. Accompanied by his three pack mules, he had roamed this way for years as he wandered around the western United States. But this time his path was blocked. The trail that had been used for centuries by the area’s earliest inhabitants came to an abrupt halt. A new housing development had sprouted up on what had been open, public land just a year earlier. As he traversed the West, he continued to encounter an increasing number of obstacles — more barbed wire, “No Trespassing” signs and locked gates impeding his journey across formerly open natural lands.

Cities and towns throughout America are wrestling with suburban expansion and shrinking open space, exploring ways of connecting communities with alternative modes of travel, debating citizens’ access to public land, and, perhaps most pressingly, searching for ways to address the increasing unhoused population in urban areas. Although Mule’s lifestyle and character appear unusual, his concerns are compellingly universal and go well beyond one individual’s fight to survive in today’s rapidly developing sprawl. His struggle represents the freedom to live outside the norms of society, and roam, rest, and sleep wherever his travels may take him.

Regardless of how we personally feel about Mule as an individual, the questions he raises affect us all, and his voice offers a unique perspective that deserves to be heard. “Call Me Mule” illuminates issues of public access, the right to public thoroughfare, and individual freedom by portraying the lifestyle of one man who is connected to the earth, his feet on the ground all day, every day. It also depicts society’s treatment of people who are less conformist, less fortunate, less firmly grounded– those flawed but fascinating characters existing on the fringe of normality and mental stability. Perhaps the most important lesson we can learn from Mule is one of empathy, for without trying to understand those who choose to live differently, we cannot create a kinder, more compassionate world for everyone to share.