Travels in Grants
Another beautiful cat in the Land of Enchantment. But then I saw that my blind old cat, Snagglepuss, had thrown up on my bed. She probably thought it was a good place to vomit because I just changed the sheets. So, the trip for the day was to the laundromat. With the laundry in the machines, the exchange of paper money for the required quarters reminded me of the winning clatter at the casino – but here you get cleaned up, not cleaned out. During the subsequent two hours, the group of my comrades were a varied lot. A young girl quickly and efficiently loaded, unloaded and dried her clothes. Ah, the energy and exuberance of youth. A mother and daughter divided the job with few words but used football-like signals to organize the attack on their laundry. A tense worried middle-aged woman brought in two huge plastic lawn bags that she knew had to be done that day. (Did she run out of clothes? Did she have an argument with her husband?) A young man brought in his little daughter who was engrossed and content with her phone video but suspicious of a real human being taking to her. (Wonder where the mother was – working, divorced, or needing a rest?) A thin old man with a remarkably upright posture, eyes straight ahead, immaculately dressed, quickly finished his work. Maybe he was used to being independent or alone. A young woman carrying her quiet little son in one arm had a large clothes bag in the other while she opened doors with her elbow. She seemed an expert in multi-tasking. One old woman patiently watched her clothes dancing with an occasional smile to a passerby. I wonder if she had any family here or, perhaps, they moved to the big city and its excitement and problems and isolation. Another old woman used her experienced eye to determined which dyer did its job the fastest. She may have been a supervisor or efficiency expert. The people were silent, meditating on their next chore, or the patterns of spinning cloth or the meaning of their lives. Like the ancient pilgrims at the temple of Aesculapius waiting to be cleansed or healed. This trip’s lesson, We each have our own story and we each must be patient with our often tedious tasks to make things better.