At Joey's

tees: from the mimsey collection

map: courtesy of the mta

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"Tiding?" She was a careworn middle aged woman with a New Delhi accent working in a store I had obviously been led to. My outing that day was to 34th Street to see if I could find some inexpensive souvenir tees to donate to Jan Hus Church's homeless outreach. I was standing in front of a window which clearly displayed, "t-shirts two for a dollar." I rubbed my eyes to make sure I had seen correctly. Even with my deplorable math skills I knew that translated to 50 cents apiece. Ten dollars would go a long way. I went inside and discovered more tables piled high with tees, one with a sign, "1 Dollar." These were decorated in a variety of New York themes. I said to myself, "Wouldn't it be nice for a homeless person to have a brand new t-shirt with a design of the city that was helping him or her get a foothold in society? I grabbed eight of the plain black fifty centers and four of the New York. On the way to the counter I saw a winter cap for a dollar and three pairs of cozy socks for two. Why not stretch the budget a teense while I was there? As I placed my purchases in front of the cashier I said, "This is wonderful! This can be part of my tithing." She stopped to ask what "tiding" was. I said,"It's what you give to God each month, the first part of anything you receive--money, time, gifts. God doesn't need it, of course, but it's a lesson in priorities. God first." She was intrigued by the idea so I told her the shirts would go to homeless outreach. I continued, "When I lived in Eureka, California where there was a large homeless population, I would buy from the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Shop and take the clothes over to the Friends (Quakers) Thrift Store but those were used clothes. With these I can donate brand new ones!" She was caught up in my excitement and asked, "What God is this?" I replied, "The God of All Things Known and Unknown." "Ah," she said, satisfied. I hoped for eavesdroppers as I waved goodbye with a, "See you next month!"

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..may the blessings of radical generosity be yours...

Looking for the Good

In one of the Shire posts, I wrote about how much I admired the statue of Evangeline in Nova Scotia. A memory popped up after that post. It was a scene from the kindergarten class in Manhattan Beach where I was the volunteer Music Lady. The teacher would suddenly call out, "Statues!" and all of us in the room would stop in whatever pose we happened to be in. I loved this moment where is seemed the world had lurched to a stop and was captured in a symbolic, "This is who you are." Remember the ballerina in Central Park? The quick change from one "still" to another was wonderful. So you can imagine my delight when I came upon this statue on 34th Street of a painter painting a painting of a wall mural. If you examine closely you can see that the sculpture includes his painting.

Now--you will say it's taken me a long time (decades!) to discover a connection between statues and my philosophy of life but just yesterday, I noticed. Statues may have made me a "looking for the good" person. As a child I always had a little altar atop a chest of drawers. I'd put fresh flowers there each day and touch the faces of the "santos" I had been given. Santa Rita was my favorite. It never occurred to me she was gruesome with the spike embedded in her forehead, blood dripping. I would touch the smooth cool stone and marvel at her serene adoration. Clearly, she was a role model of sacrifice and gratitude. And how about those Nativity set sheep so glad to be near the Baby? From tender beginnings such as placing a bowl of hibiscus next to a figurine came my defining world view.

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...may the blessings of tiny /large revelations be yours...

Welcome Friends

photo credit: henry hobbs

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Greetings from The Treehouse in the Big Apple. This tree, of course, is not the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that we have been warned against in myth and sacred text since history began. This is a welcoming green apple tree set by a river and a park on the Upper Green Side. The greeters at the Visitors' Center are shown above. Will, the keeper of the Treehouse; Robert, my esteemed brother; and Yours Truly, the Blobber. On my last outing in the Shire, I got an idea of who would be stopping by The City that Never Sleeps because of the encounters on the bus route. The first one was with I saw a young woman and her two children whom I had met during the summer and hadn't seen since. She told me I had inspired her to start volunteering in school and said shyly that she was learning to read. I said I would be leaving for New York on the next Tuesday so I was glad to know this. The older child said, "Maybe we'll see you at the Statue of Liberty!" Her mom laughed and explained, "You got her fired up to go there when you was telling us about Henry's adventure." Another encounter was because I had to wait for the photos at CVS so I decided to get a haircut at my usual place in Carrboro. There was someone new and much experienced working that day. We really hit it off. It turned out she was born on Staten Island and had moved out to Hollywood in her twenties. She proudly ran through the names of her customers: Johnny Carson, all the Fleetwood Macs, and several others I don't recall. I told her I had lived in Manhattan Beach and she said her husband had delivered the same newspaper as Erik. She said she was going to give me a "pretty haircut for a pretty lady." She had plenty of time to talk and at the end of our chatting she wanted a hug and said she was sure she would see me on the sidewalks of New York! Then, by chance, I got the New York bus driver and I said goodbye to him. He said, you guessed it, "I'll probably see you there some day!" It made me think I should do a blob about all the people who are coming to see us. I could call it the New and Improved Visitors' Center, which, as you see I have done!

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...may the blessings of kind companions on your journeys of discoveries be yours...