October 27, 2009 Today was Food Bank Day; we’re such a small community that it’s only open one day a week. Once in a while somebody suggests that it would be good to open one night as well, to accommodate working folks; in the meantime one woman picks up for the dozen or so families who are in that position. What’s wonderful about our Food Bank, housed in the social hall of the Community Church, is that everybody, volunteers and participants alike, eat lunch together. For a long time, the church ladies made the lunch; now, three other churches are taking one week a month to provide the food.
Peter Farb and George Armelagos, in their book Consuming Passions: The Anthropology of Eating (1980), pointed out that in all societies, eating is the main way of initiating and maintaining human relationships. Certainly, that’s true here. For the volunteers, a break from stacking the cans on shelves, or bagging the basic foods that everyone gets, or picking up donations around town (my specialty) is a welcome chance to talk with friends and relatives who may be on either side of the counter.
Although I didn’t eat much today, having had a very late breakfast before coming to the Food Bank, I enjoyed good Red Zinger tea and chat with one of the most physically beautiful men I’ve ever met! He’s tall, maybe 6’6”, with high, chiseled cheekbones and comfortable posture. He also knows a lot about energy medicine--which I’ve read a lot about--from having been a massage therapist for many years, and he discusses the merits of techniques from shiatsu to rolfing and Swedish massage and chakra balancing with great authority. One advantage of being my age is that lust doesn’t get in the way of a good conversation!
Today was special in another way: somebody is stepping up to the plate who can take over my job of coordinating volunteers when Jack and I go to Arizona at the end of the year. Maggie, on her first day today, spent a lot of time stacking groceries, trying to figure out where donations should go. Requirements for the volunteer coordination are a little tact, and knowing what the various jobs require.
Sunny, chilly afternoon: Susan and I walked around the lake with her Stanley and my Binka. There are so few people using the lake at this time of year that we let them off their leashes; they chased each other, tussled, growled and had a ball. Her one-woman show is coming up soon at our artists’ cooperative, Artworks; she seemed relaxed today after a lot of hard work putting it together. It has a common theme of a vanishing American artifact: clotheslines. In this day of Laundromats and home dryers, she spends time imagining what different people would hang out if they had clotheslines. There’s so much more about her work that is unique; she deserves lots of success.
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