We ate at Bertucci's (an Italian franchise out here at least) tonight, as an added bonus for Father's Day, and as we sat there eating our rolls, a very quiet man walked by, placed something on the edge of our table and kept on going, placing these whatevers on more tables. I picked it up with my Dad and it read "I am Deaf. I sell these pins (American Flag) for $3. This is how I earn my money to live on. Thank You." Yeah I know there ARE people who will lie and what not to get money, but these were hand typed cards, they looked like they had been made with care. So we bought the one he had placed on our table and he signed Thank You to my Dad. I DO know thank you. And moments later, I saw the manager force him to leave. I get it. No soliciting, but this is not the same king of solicitation that I always felt those rules were for. This poor elderly man, is handicapped and this is the way he makes his money. Selling a pin of our Country's flag!
The manager didn't rudely push him out, but he pointed to the door and the man left. And it just upset me so much. Maybe I am too soft. Maybe that will get me taken advantage of, but I feel this man was trying to make a living. And he just needs some help. I don't believe anyone else in the restaurant bought a pin, it was just $3 people! My Dad gave it to me, I think because I was so upset when Dad started mentioning solicitation, and I couldn't get this man out of my head. There is a difference between someone trying to sell you a car or new stove, and someone looking to make some change, not by asking for donations, but by asking you to buy a tiny object that will help them LIVE. I just found it totally upsetting.There IS a difference. LET them solicit if their lives depend on it! He didn't har rass anyone. He gently placed these cards with the pins stuck to them on tables and waited to see if anyone was interested. And we were. How can you not help a fellow human being, down on their luck, but TRYING to make a life for themselves. Some people just expect handouts, but this gentle man wasn't asking for handouts, he was asking you to pay a tiny fee for a tiny item, to help him pay for his living expenses.
I'd rather take the No Soliciting sign down and say NO to traveling salesman and drive them out, than to miss helping a fellow human being who might be that one "solicitor" who could really use our help. Maybe that will make me a beacon for getting bamboozled, but it just bothered me so much.
You know when you hear a song in a movie or on a tv show or the radio and it just speaks to you so much, you HAVE to find out who sings it and the name of the song. Well, when I heard this song, I fell in love with it. It just speaks to me, and not just the lyrics, although I do love the "no fear" part...it's the music, the melody too. It drowns me in it's rich embrace. It is just so silky and smooth.
But to my surprise and delight, this wasn't the only song by him that struck the chords of my heart. I listened to snippets of his songs from his two released albums, and most of his music was so soothing, lulling me into his world. I can so appreciate the artists who can do this. It's not just you liking their sound or their lyrics, when music touches the center of your soul, it is much more than "liking" a band or singer. When they can paint visual imagery with their voices and words, THAT is an amazing gift. And them being able to show you their world, is a gift to those who listen. I wanna to envelop myself in the music like a warm blanket surrounds you on a cold, frigid winter night. So thank you, Joshua, for sharing your magic world of delicate words and vivid imagery. It's like a comforting hand stroking your forehead as you drift into the music. And visual imagery is my thing. I am just all about something that I can "see" even though I am not actually seeing it live. My favorite books and authors, they make me "see" the story unfold before my eyes. If you can't capture me in this kind of way, I end up not reading the book, or liking the movie, or the song. Basically, for me visual imagery, is a MUST, in order for me to be drawn in. I don't know, maybe it is the artist in me, but as far back as I can remember, I saw the books I read "in" my mind, like a running movie in my brain. And movies ARE all visual, but even things referred to in movies, I could see in my "mind's eye", so I tended to gravitate towards what made me, well, FEEL. If I could feel the music, see the book, go further into the movie, it was fresh and more enjoyable.
It could even explain my troubles with school, I struggled to maintain good grades in subjects like history and sciences. When I read it, it didn't click, there were no mental pictures of Lincoln or the epidermis going through my brain as I read. I just read and the words blurred together not sticking. Where as things I enjoy, movies, songs or even books, I can remember the smallest details that surprise people. I remember an actor no one else knows, the cover of a movie or book is so ingrained in my brain, I know I own it as soon as I see it "nope I own that one". I did well in art classes, spelling and vocab, etc. But they made more sense to me. I could see the words in my mind, see what I wanted to create in my brain, even though it never turned out as I saw it, but I knew which direction to start in. Whereas with history and sciences and geometry, I just couldn't grasp the concepts because I just don't see it, don't feel it, just can't get it to click into my brain the way it should. In college I was so surprised when Algebra just clicked so easily into my head. But when I think about it, I was able to "see" (yup I am using that way too much) the equations and where the numbers fit into the formulas. Accounting? Nope, I just couldn't get my head wrapped around the concepts no matter how many questions I asked,etc.
So I think I am in that special category of people who need visuals to get the subject matter to make sense or memorable. I am not my sisters who can read a chapter and plain sudy and it will stick, at least long enough to ace a test. I have to be told/shown stuff like that over and over and if I am lucky I will do a decent job and then what what, you may ask? Well I tilt my head and it falls out the other ear.The only time in high school or college that some history REALLY stuck was when Mr. Boyles (only good history teacher I ever had) a)had a man (actually an older member of my ward, I was surprised to see) come in, he was one of the first soldiers to enter one of the concentration camps to free the Jew's,etc, b) he told his own story of his best friend dying in his arms during the Vietnam War and c)when he brought in these really in depth video's showing the concentration camps and what the people had done to them,etc. It was pretty graphic stuff, but it really showed you the truth of what these people went through, which made them more real, and I saw their stories unfold, whether on the tv screen or in my mind as stories were related to us. Most amazing history teacher I ever had. Science will forever elude me, it just is incapable of clicking. In one ear, right out the other. My mother occasionally asks me "what is a blue moon?", the one question she remembers from my Astronomy class that she helped me get through...and I have no idea, the majority of the times she asks me. Do I know it right now? Why yes, because she asked me like 5 days ago. A blue moon is 2 full moons in one month...and within the next week I will lose that knowledge to the area of my brain that sucks all things that bore me or elude me, into a black hole.Yup there it is right there...the black hole. What kind of thinkers are you guys? How do you best retain knowledge, even knowledge you didn't PLAN on retaining (like me and movies...I don't try, I just DO)? Are you a visual girl like me? Or a written word person? Facts, words,etc being all you need? Data, if you will. Talk to me people.♥
Posts
.jpg)
