The character of Steve Lopez is a complex one. He initially is drawn toe Nathaniel Ayers because of his musical genius and because he smells a good newspaper story in the Skid Row homeless man playing Beethoven. Yet Lopez seems to be unfulfilled and lacking purpose in his life. He worries about his ethics in befriending the subject of one of his stories, thinking it will undermine his objectivity. He also thinks he may be exploiting Ayers' condition by writing about his personal life. As his friendship with Ayers deepens, Lopez begins to generate greater insight and understanding into himself and his own life. He recognizes one of the only things he might be able to do for Ayers is to just simply be his friend. He comes to learn that having a friend means you accept that person for who they are, good and bad. As Lopez tells us of this personal revelation, "I've learned to accept him as he is, to expect constant backsliding, to prepare for the possibility that he could be homeless again or worse, and to see hope in small steps" (268). Rather than the clinical and objective journalist he has been his entire career, Lopez' relationship with Ayers helps him to forge a deeper bond with another human being than he has known.
We see that despite Lopez' success as a journalist for the Los Angeles Times, he seems unfulfilled and his life seems empty of purpose. He seems to admire Ayers' musical genius not just because of his musical ability but because it fulfills his friend complete, serving as a "meditation, a reverie, a respite from madness" (Lopez 35). These opportunities to get away from the hustle and bustle of modern existence seem to be missing in Lopez' life. At one point he seems to have an epiphany that dramatically changes his perspective of himself, others and the world. As he tells us of this change wrought by his relationship with Ayers: "I wrestled with definitions of freedom and happiness and wo...