On the Thursday we prepared and
served
a
sit-down
dinner for 150 homeless people. On the Friday morning we prepared
and delivered 55 dinners to the
homes
of people who are elderly and infirm. On the Friday afternoon we
prepared, supervised, and
served
another
sit-down
dinner for 90 impoverished people, replete with eggnog and a live
band serenading Christmas carols.
Before the Thursday
sit-down
for the homeless, we
servers
stood
in a circle
holding hands,
saying
a
prayer
(it's a tradition with the group with whom I volunteer). The person
intoning the
prayer
said "Thank You
God
that we're able to
serve
these people" (referring to the fact that we have plenty to give) -
at which
point
I chimed in "But it's not about us
God:
Thank You that we're not the ones we
serve"
(referring to the fact that they're homeless). With this, some of
the
servers
began
crying.
We also set up Christmas decorations which yes, were sparse (our
main budget is for food). But if you're homeless it's likely you
have no Christmas decorations at all, so what we had was
heart-warming
and
generous.
Yet beyond any shadow of doubt, the most
heart-warming
and
generous
Christmas decorations I ever saw (which also
happen
to be the most
heart-warming
and
generous
Christmas decorations I ever helped dress) were in (and
on)
Werner Erhard's Franklin
House.
Outside the main upstairs suite
window,
three bright lights in formation were
clearly
visible from Franklin Street below. Visualize it: this audacious
display evoked the three wise men, Gaspar, Balthasar, and Melchior,
the magi arriving to
celebrate
the first Christmas - not in the manger but at the
Franklin House.
Think
about it. Wow! It was
brilliant,
evocative, and bound to be controversial - but then again,
Werner's
not exactly known for meekly kowtowing to the status quo. If
anyone else did that, it would have reeked of false bravado and
inauthenticity.
But when
Werner
did it, amazingly it raised the consciousness of everyone and
anyone fortunate enough to be in its vicinity who
got it.
If anyone else did it, it would have been a self-aggrandizing
boast. But when
Werner
did it, it was a
breakthrough
for
humanity,
a
new
possibility
of
being
for
human being.
Even after the amazement wore off, you were left with the
obviousness of it all: you were left with "Why didn't
I
think
of that?".
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