I will admit I’ve been a little antsy in my small Arkansas town/city lately. Thoughts of bigger cities, and my friends and family so far away, have set my sense of peace and contentment on edge.
Tonight, though, a lovely group of people gave me a special gift.
First, some context. For all those marketing/PR types out there, you know what I mean when I say that there is nothing worse than a public event to which no one shows up. You shrink inside, and your self-worth goes right out the window. Tonight, a photo shoot for our season brochure, could have been one of those nights.
But, one by one, they trickled in. A pair of our dedicated volunteers, a few staff members and their friends, the random person who heard about the photo shoot on twitter. Even people on the street, families out for a walk with their kids on a warm spring evening, joined in.
They waited patiently for nearly an hour, then spent another 45 minutes walking in circles on cue, and then patiently waiting again for us to say “ok, folks, just once more!” Not one of them left. They did whatever we asked of them. They kept smiling and laughing and when we were done, many of them thanked us. Several of them didn’t even know why they were with us, but were content to sit with strangers and enjoy themselves.
I’m not sure the same sense of easy conversation and laughter would have existed in a bigger city setting. Certainly the air wouldn’t have smelled so luscious, laden as it was with the scents of spring flowers; the light wouldn’t have been so pure, glowing from the sun hidden below the horizon. Maybe the sense of fun and friendship would have been the same, but I wonder.
Everything and a Racehorse 