Day: February 15, 2017

I had the nicest time at the Mansion, everyone was happy to feed me and, of course, see Red. I sat with Allan,  Sylvie and Brother Pete, a New Skete Monk for nearly 50 years. We talked about the monastic life and about Sylvie’s life as a foreign service child.

We had a  good meal of macaroni and stewed tomatoes with a fresh roll.

Connie received four skeins of baby wool yesterday (thank you), but she is struggling to find a pattern so she can make knitted caps for newborn babies at the Albany Medical Center, her new project, inspired by the wool many of you sent to her. She is focused on this work, and I am in awe of the change in her since I first met her.

She is busy all day knitting mittens and scarves for people. She is always alert to tell me who would like to see Red, she loves him but is generous with him. Typical man, she says. She is interested in Maria’s trip to India, and asked me to tell Maria she misses her. I imagine Maria will bring something back from India for her.

If anyone knows how to find a pattern for knitting newborn baby caps, or has one to send, Connie is ready to go on this project, she is at 11 S. Union Street, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816 and I thank you so much for supporting her.  I can’t find patterns for newborn baby caps.

She says she has a stack of Valentine’s letters two feet high and has set aside some time each day to read every one.

Peggie is getting letters from red-haired feisty women all over the world. She is loving every one, and proud of her spirit.

At the end of the meal, a troop of Boy Scouts marched in and sat with the residents and talked with them and listened to them. It was a lovely idea and the Mansion residents loved talking with the young, precisely what they need.

I loved having dinner there, it was fascinating to hear the real life stories of the people Red and I see in one particular context. It was so thoughtful of them to invite me, and I loved every minute. More pictures.

I was touched last night to see and hear Oscar’s Trio, three men who perform at places like the Mansion. The residents loved them, and they definitely brought a festive air to the Valentine’s Day Party. It is always interesting for me to see this kind of culture, going on all the time, out of sight and mind of most of us.

The trio knew just what the people at the Mansion wanted to hear, they were very much in sync. Gentle and smiling, they were fun to watch and listen to. And photograph. On the other side of the world, in a way. Tonight, I’m off to have dinner at the Mansion with the residents there, they are worried about whether I am getting enough to eat with Maria away.

I keep trying to tell them that I do the cooking and shopping in my house, but they don’t seem impressed with that argument. It is sweet that they care about me.

I’m having serious computer troubles, my system crashed, unusual on a fairly new computer, and I’ve been on the phone on and off with Apple for five or six hours…argggh..Surely a spiritual test, staying patient, staying calm. I am reminded of how much my life and work are tied up on this machine, my photos, words, blog, my book also.

I didn’t get the creative time to write I was hoping for, but I suppose it is all a test of faith and maturity. I think of the things the blog does – the refugees, the Mansion, the readers, and it is hard to stay completely even. I will head out and feed the animals, Maria called to say good night (how strange to have her so far away) and I will get to the Mansion this evening for dinner. I hope I will have a photo of it for you to see.

Apple is unusually flummoxed by the troubles I am having, we don’t yet have a clue. Hopefully, more later. This too shall pass.

Maria sent me one of her first photos from India, it appears to be a mechanic’s garage in Kolkatz. The city is amazing, she says,  you can see her first videos here. This photo was taken from a bus. She was exhausted and had to sleep. She is loving the experience, and will teach her potholder class tomorrow to some victims of sex trafficking.

“I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.”  – Abraham Lincoln.

Milan Kundera wrote in The Unbearable Lightness Of Being  that there is nothing heavier than compassion. Not even one’s own pain weights so heavy as the pain one feels with someone, for someone, a pain intensified by the imagination and prolonged by a hundred echoes.”

Compassion is not, for me, a debating point. You either feel it or you don’t. This morning, I was told the story of one of the refugee children who recently came to America, she was a young girl whose mother was so tortured by religious extremists that she set her self on fire and committed suicide. Her father disowned the girl, who he said was tainted by the mother’s refusal to obey him. It is a miracle that she is alive, and was taken in by some U.N. refugee workers and eventually, after two years alone in two different camps, was sent to America.

I thought of Kundera’s quote when I heard of this girl’s story. Someone cared for her, felt compassion and empathy for her, and saved her. You either  feel this or you don’t, no one can be argued into compassion, at least not in my experience. Sometimes they come to see it for themselves.

I am grateful for the U.S. Committee on Refugees and Immigration and their Amazon gift page, for this has given me a way to show compassion and support the moral principle on which our country was built. Morality was much inverted then, as now, but Thomas Jefferson, who owned slaves, believed compassion and kindness was a moral principle of the world’s first democracy.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/3LZNLT7J68TY7/ref=cm_sw_em_r_wsg_FVpGybH9EPC5X_wb