Today is the third and final part of touching pieces about bright encounters I hope may make your wonderful world seem brighter. For no matter what ugly meanness I experience out there I find far brighter encounters because I live knowing they are there. So I find them. Or they find me...
Over the decades I have been in New York City a number of times for visits related to theatre such as Scene Designer Workshops, to receive an award, or to
visit friends and see a play.
I have shared in a recent blog piece about my needing to be in NYC for a four month summer Scene Design workshop. Having friends there helped because I not only had a place to stay but a horse to care for and ride in Central Park whose owner had to be away that summer. So it was a win-win situation for Mugwamp and me. Yes, that was his name and I never knew why his name was Mugwamp. But neither Mugwamp or I cared because we were having a blast galloping around Central Park.
Often I would stop by the Park with a bag and pick grass for Mugwamp then take it to him at the stable a few blocks away from the Park. And yes, I discovered what a shock it was even for New Yorkers to come upon Adelaide dressed like a hippie with her wild hair picking grass.
"Hey little lady! What you picking that grass for?"
"My horse."
"Did you say a hoise?"[NYC way of saying horse]
"YES AND I USE A STALL DOOR OR A MOUNTING BLOCK OR A CAR HOOD TO GET ON THEM WITH."
"Hey, how did you know I was going to ask that?!!"😂
Well, I now should write about this incredible bright encounter I hoped to share.
Each week as it looked like I was about to run out of clean underwear I would pay a visit to the area laundromat rather than go buy more new underwear which can get kind of costly in NYC.🤣
In laundromats the washing machine and dryer coin slots to put in the change needed may as well be on
top of Mt. Everest because they are so high. Normally
I would have to move a chair over to the washer then climb on it to put my coins into the slots. Only in NYC to keep the chairs from being taken to furnish a starving actor's abode since this was the Theatre District, the chairs were chained together to a pole. No way in hell could they be moved. So my only option was to pray I get an honest person to ask to please help me so I can have clean underwear.
I found my knight in a very nice man named Abrams, who no matter when I needed clean underwear was always there at the laundromat and happy to help. So I began sitting near Abrams each week and we would visit. We started out discussing the Sunday comics, chess, the universe, art, plays, and books. Then we segued into telling about ourselves.
After Abrams wanted to know my life story like what I did, why was I in NYC, all about my theatre journey [he had already found out I was a crazy horse person because one day I slipped and fell into a pile of horse shit and my laundry smelled that week😳] it was time for me to learn about him. So I dived in.
"Abrams, please tell me about you. Have you always lived here...not this laundromat I mean, but NYC?"
"Adelaide, you're not going to believe this. I used to be somebody."
"You still are, Abrams."
"I know but really I used to be somebody. I taught for years at Julliard...and this is what you're going to find unbelievable. I taught Scene Design and Scene Painting, not advanced like the college level though but..."
"Holy shit! You mean out of all the laundromats, out of all the people in this one and all the people in NYC there are, I get drawn to a fellow Scene Designer to help me reach the machines in here?!! You're kidding me, right?"
"Uh...no."
"Do you realize how extraordinary this is?"
"Yes. I couldn't believe it either when you told me what you did!"
"Well Abrams, you appear too young to be retired. Are you still teaching part time or something?"
"No Adelaide. I can't get over how I am sitting here opening myself up to you like this. Why I've not even tried to or cared about speaking to anyone here in this place before! How do you..."
"I think it has something to do with the way I came packaged for my journey. I am also known for being a hopeless empath too.
"I sense this. You know, opening myself up to you is huge, Adelaide. You see eight years ago my beautiful wife who was pregnant with our second child, was taking our son to kindergarten when a drunk driver ran
a red light and plowed into them as they were crossing the street. They were killed instantly."
"Oh Abrams! I am so sorry! This...this is terrible!"
"I haven't wanted to work since though I miss it. They still beg me to return but I just feel I need more time.
That I'm not ready. I'm afraid. So I come here instead. This is where my wife and I met. This is where we came our last night as a family together of all places. But like you we were running out of clean underwear so we came here."
"Abrams, have you ever heard of Paula D'Arcy?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact I have. A friend gave me her book a few years ago but I haven't read it. Why?"
"Do you know anything about her?"
"No."
"Ms. D'Arcy was pregnant with her second child when she, her husband who had been working on his thesis, and their two year old daughter were returning home after a family visit. A drunk driver plowed into their car head-on killing her husband and daughter instantly. In one terrible moment she lost everything dearest to her. She had been keeping a journal prior to the accident, and it became the one thing that saved her where she could pour out her sorrow and anger. Her book is that very journal."
"Did she ever find inner peace again?"
"You're going to find out because I want you to do something for me."
"What?"
"Abrams, the book only takes about an hour to read. You are going to read it and meet me here tomorrow. If you don't I will ESP guilt upon you in spades."
"I'll read it! I promise!"
True to his word Abrams met me at the laundromat the next day.
"Adelaide, I don't know what to say. The book spoke to everything I have been consumed with from deep within as nothing before. I felt a shift inside me."
"Abrams, I'm so proud of you! Now what if you took some baby steps. To try just visiting Julliard first. Then teach one class a week for awhile. When that goes well try adding another class and so on. But take baby steps. Robert Ingersoll wrote, 'the greatest test on earth is to embrace a courage within that will enable one to bear sorrow without losing heart.' He doesn't say deny it but to bear it. To try denying your sorrow is like trying to deny the loss of your wife and children. But you can live with the sorrow without it destroying you...and you can reach a place of hopefulness in your life again."
Tears were pouring down Abrams face. But he said these were tears of a release. And gratitude.
"You and I were meant to meet Adelaide. I don't know how to thank you."
"Abrams, years ago some very dear mentor friends gave me the gifts of loving-kindness to help make me who
I am, and my only ways of thanking them has been to pass on that loving-kindness."
"And I will."
There are reasons why we have bright encounters. All the bright encounters I have known had either been when I needed them most or why someone else I encountered like the three I have just shared here needed one the most. These are why you, my dear readers, are reading this blog about the very amazing wonderful journey I have been galloping my way through, leaving behind hope, laughter, and a whole lot of love as I soar.
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