I cannot remember how the time passed by so quickly. I felt the fall winds on the top of the brow today, and saw the leaves riding them like paper airplanes. I saw the color inside the leaves practically changing overnight. And I have changed with them. Overnight, over the days, months, weeks, and years of my life. I am old, but I am not. My mind keeps me as me, and only if I lose my mind will I ever be old. It could happen, but maybe not.
I gave a lot of things away this weekend. Some things I just exchanged back for money without making a profit. I gave several things away for nothing. One pretty little thirteen year old girl said she was going to be in the drama club, wanted to be an actress. She liked a little sterling necklace with the drama mask on it. I didn’t think her parents would buy it. “Take it” I said, “and wear it on the first day of your drama class, and remember the crazy old man on the mountain.” She smiled as she put it on.
I had many people say “This is a really good deal!” I told them that yes it was, but if it meant something to them, I wanted them to have it. I want a human being to wear a piece of my collection. Something they want and like. I collect things for the purpose of saving a special piece from death at the scrapper’s hands, and a new life of enjoyment for a person. I have a collection to share, I don’t have inventory. Mentone is my place to pass some things on. I can’t tell you the number of people who return every time I go there in the spring and the fall, and in August, and they will point to piece they are wearing and say “remember this”? And I think yep…and you remember me!
There is just some kind of cosmic payback in being nice to people, fair to people, actually liking people and wanting them to be happy and feel good about themselves. And these gatherings are so diverse, representing every segment of our society and culture of today. And so I treat them all the same no matter what. My philosophy is not to judge, but to pass on an inanimate object which can give joy for a period of time. And to do it with as much class as possible.
Down in the valley I never give deals to resellers (well hardly ever…there is one…)
So I have learned in the Spring and the Falls, and the Autumn of my life, that empathy is the best policy….and greed is a bitter dose of castor oil for the spiritually unwell and unhappy. They should try the brisk air, and the blowing wind, and the bright sunshine. Also a smile and really listening to someone when they are talking.
Writing for Sanity's Sake 