Musings on the Free Bench

You have Polly P. to thank for this idea (only she did it for her photos), and a gathering of some dear friends on my birthday eve this year to thank for my deciding to go for it.  What you see before you is me, embarking on a year-long journey to write something - just a little something - every day and send it off to folks who might be interested.  In order to give some shape to these writings, I look to our free bench.

Several years ago, G---- undertook to cut a cobb bench into our front burm.  In this way, we'd provide a covered place for neighborhood people to sit.  And they do: folks from the apartments who want to be outside with their morning cup of coffee, elderly people who are tuckered out halfway home from Safeway, guitar players who want a larger audience than their cats, homeless people who are tired, tired of always being on the move.  It also provides something we didn't expect: a covered area to put out things you don't need or want anymore that you can imagine someone else might.  This means different things to different people, as you shall see.

 This year, you will learn a little about what shows up on our bench and more about where that takes me.  As they say, you may unsubscribe from this list at any point.  Please let me know if I have you on here twice.

 Meanwhile, I write this from the Bluebird Guesthouse where G---- and I spent the night in the Ken Kesey room to celebrate my 49th birthday. A few other guests awakened before we did, quietly made coffee, their breakfasts, were already bustling when we came trailing down.  We arrived as they discussed their list for groceries for ingredients to make potato salad. One woman said to the other, "When do you suppose the grocery store opens?" The other said, “There's no hurry; the potluck's not until 3:00,” and I thought about how it goes this way, that there is someone who wants to be on top of it, wants to take care of the known responsibilities – even on vacation – and there is also someone who says, “Relax, you can loosen your hold a little.”