hope for the world

I am at the grocery store in Little Silver and I see the lady unpacking yogurts. There is a stack of small empty cardboard boxes and since it is true that I have moved so many times in my life that every time I see an empty box I think I need it, I ask the lady if I might please have one.

She smiles and says “Yes,” and “Please help yourself. They will just be crushed.”

So then I say “Well if they are headed for oblivion might I take two?”

“Please do.”

“Thank you. I am making some Valentine’s Day packages.”

And she says, “Oh Good, you might inspire me.”

There is a small traffic jam of carts in the dairy section and a few minutes later she comes up to me and says, “Thank you for being so polite and asking so nicely. I know that you are raising your children the same way and that gives me hope for the world.”

I smile and say, “I am afraid we have only cats and dogs.”

And she says, “And I bet they are very well-behaved.”

And I reply, “I wish that I could say that was true.”

But what I think is that in people like this kind lady, there is hope for the world.

And I also found hope in two other encounters today:

We heard a musician named Dan Wilensky speak on his life and new book entitled Musician. Imagine Tom Hanks meets Jon Stewart with an eye patch and a saxophone.

Dan is a very winning human being, with a pleasing combination of sweetness and charisma. He started off in a musical family but was considered the least talented one, or a late bloomer anyway, and then in his late teens he went on tour playing with Ray Charles. He loves all music, and is such a heart-filled person, believing every child and every person should have an opportunity to learn a musical instrument. Without sounding at all cliché he managed to talk about how important it is to do what you love in life.

He alerted us that out of the 18th wealthiest nations on the planet, the US comes in last for supporting the arts, especially music. We all agree that this is shameful and our culture is poorer for it.

Do you all play a musical instrument? If not, he truly believes it is never too late to begin.

I am a strings person and not so much sax and flute, his specialties, but if you want to hear him play here is a link where there is a listen button:
http://danwilensky.com/bio.php


I envied not only his impressive talent but also his eye patch. Maybe that would help my migraine. If I wore that over my right eye… I coveted that eye patch.

I also heard him mention being half blind. That idea has stuck with me. Half blind.


More hope was to be found in the lady at the Lion’s Den, the café at the library, who made for me a lovely steamed milk cocoa and from whom I also purchased a cider donut and a vanilla wafer cupcake. She was so calm and gentle and we had such a pleasant conversation. Then I tipped her and then she gave me a complimentary donut.

Now, how many children should I adopt?

Or should I just try to get the feral kittens more interested in music?