‘I believe that we are what we...

‘I believe that we are what we eat in addition to we are what we think and we are what we do.’

Al Arffman has recovered from a series of nervous breakdowns since he was a POW in Germany during World War II. He has pursued a dancing career, toiled as a gardener and collected litter from city streets, parks and alleys for therapy. As the owner of a La Jolla health-food restaurant, the 65-year-old native of Yonkers, N.Y., has found a refuge where he dances, serves grains, vegetables and fruit, and has only the clank of pots and pans to disquiet his nerves. Brooke Shields befriended him at his garden eatery, The Pearl, and invited him to New York for her 21st birthday party. He went on borrowed money, shunning a suit coat for a black-velvet stole, cape and trousers and a silver-lame cummerbund. Times Staff writer Nancy Reed interviewed him at the restaurant. Photo by staff photographer Dave Gatley.

I was recovering from a nervous breakdown that had occurred while I was in prison in Germany. I had to recuperate before I could go back to graduate school at Columbia University, where I was majoring in comparative literature and the philosophy of religions. I wanted to teach in a university.

But I had a talent as a child of creative dancing.

Stimulated by my cousin, who took dancing lessons--ballet--I would go to her recitals. I thought it was fabulous. I would try some of her costumes, not realizing that it was irregular for a young boy. I created dances for my friends.

One day my beloved Aunt Sophie from New York watched me dance and smiled because it was a little on the cute side, slightly amusing. Suddenly she burst out laughing, so that crushed me completely, and I didn’t dance again, only in high school, only on dates at social dances.

But then after coming home from the war, and falling completely in love, and that love being completely frustrated, I went compulsively into dancing. At the slightest sound of music I would start to dance.

I loved it. So I went into a serious study of modern dance at 27--very late for going into the dance.

I made my way across the country hitchhiking, desiring to reach Walt Disney in Hollywood to request a job with him dancing Plato’s “Cave Allegory in the Republic,” a famous philosophical work I thought could be done beautifully with animation and a dancer.

I got a job as an usher at Warner Bros. theater in Hollywood. I thought that I would continue my studies rather than get to Disney.

I studied with Ruth St. Denis; she carried her spiritual ideas into her dance. This was in 1951. I left her wanting to go on concert tour to colleges and universities. I had no acceptances, so I went into study with Lester Horton.

I worked hard, but when I overworked, the breakdowns would recur. There were times I was so ill I could not even hang a pair of socks on a clothesline. I didn’t have the strength.

In 1969 I was able to found a Church of the Fine Arts in San Diego to present spiritual ideas through the vehicle of the fine arts. The church was successful in that I was able to present dances and lecture programs, but with nothing really materializing, I had a change of mind. I wanted to become independent of my VA compensation.

So I went out on gardening jobs, all over town on a bicycle, weaving down the street carrying everything except my lawn mower. I was overworking. I snapped. So I was in the hospital again. I was released in 1976 and came to La Jolla.

I was so weak and so depressed, and as I walked up Pearl Street I was so dismayed by the condition of the street that I had to look up rather than look down because it was so badly littered--with everything under the sun--from banana peels to chicken bones to baby diapers.

So gradually I started doing what I had done in North Park. There I would go into Balboa Park on Saturday and Sunday and clean the park.

I began to repeat this. With the sun and the air and the feedback by people, I was able to take on one more street at a time until I had the entire core of La Jolla under control so that there was not one cigarette butt on the streets of La Jolla.

I was depressed by the fact that I had been compensated over the years in order that I might pursue my thing, and hopefully revolutionize the world as a great dancer with these great ideas. When I saw that I had failed, I felt very obligated to help those who had helped me all those years. Namely, the people of the United States.

Then after two years, suddenly my . . . talents were crying for expression.

I founded The Pearl. I believe that we are what we eat in addition to we are what we think and we are what we do.

I try to give you pure food, but still palatable or tasty, but mainly to feed you in a way that I believe America should be eating. The Pearl is a spiritual, cultural, arts, health center and restaurant.

This is basic because art is at my heart and at the heart of The Pearl. That is why I have solo dance programs on Wednesdays.

In 6 1/2 years, it has never really pulled out of the red. I think God does want The Pearl to exist. I haven’t broken in 6 1/2 years.