Everyone is Invited

I am feeling kind and inspired after a three day planning retreat for my job. There is the work of creating community not just for people with psychiatric labels, but the bigger work of making a place for every one of us at the table; the loud, the lewd and the lousy, along with the lovely (Sometimes I am all of these people in the course of the day). It may just come down to being very patient, very cool and for some of us, very maternal.

When I was in Cuba I was visiting a farming co-op, hearing a lecture in Spanish I could not really make out, and in the small audience were American commie tourists, babies, teenagers and real, real old people. And one of these old people was an Abuelo who was shouting out things like, "CIGARS!" and "PENNIES FROM HEAVEN!" and no one shamed him or made him leave. A kid about 10 winked at me and wound his little index finger around his ear, like "cuckoo." And while that sounds condescending, it really wasn't. It was just so that I could understand the way of it. You know, some people shout out.