Give Thanks

This was supposed to have been the second in a gruppetto of articles announcing a series of free bike workshops, the first of which happened a month ago. I knew at the time that the lack of publicity would probably doom the intended first meeting- I was right. But I was also amazed at the range of response I got within a few days of the article. There was, however, a breakaway of words that leapt to the forefront and captured my attention, but more as a warning than an encouragement. I have heard this many times before, these five words- thank you for doing this.

It is a phrase that caused its first ironic sting while I was on a march that was happening in Seattle back in 2006 as an intended statement against the Bush era. There was an expectation of a large turnout as it was a splendid day, the march began at Red Square at the U of W and the then current occupant of the White House was wreaking havoc on the collective well-being of this country and the world. With maybe 50-75 people on hand, the march proceeded off campus, across the University bridge and up to Cal Edwards Park on Capitol Hill. All along the way there were car horn toots of support, emphatic thumbs being waved up behind semi-tinted car windows, and occasionally, very occasionally, a window would be rolled down and as the air-conditioned air escaped the confines of the driving cockpit it would carry along with it the words- thank you for doing this.

As I was trying to figure out where to take a nursery business that seemed to be going backwards rather than leaning forward, it was suggested that I try the Farmers Market circuit- your plants are good and interesting- you should do well, it was said. When I found that the dark blue pop-up canopy was not showing off the colors of the various plants on display I found a white one that was a deal on Craig’s List and the light shone down. When the set up didn’t really draw people into the booth, I rearranged the tables so they did not have to come in- just walk by and look. I added a stand for my note cards with various plant portraits and did cards of the markets I was selling in, even though now-a-days people find it easier to send texts and tweets or something snapped through a smeared smart phone lens.

People did stop and look and ask gardening questions. Sometimes they even bought something. But mostly, as everything that had been handled and probed and sometimes marveled at was all put back in their places, the market shopper would turn and hand me a five word token and walk away. I would put these in a bag, although I wouldn’t declare them when cashing out with the market manager at the end of the day- they were, after all, only words. I would wait in line and hear of the peanut brittle guy’s $900 day, or get an offer from the bread guy to take home one of the handful of loaves he had left. I would pay my percentage of the eighty or so dollars I had collected while keeping my bag of word tokens to myself. Those were mine to take home and spread out on the counter and gaze over. As they clanked together while tumbling from the sack they certainly did have a ring to them, those words- thank you for doing this.

I will stop the wallowing now- my reason for writing this was to say I really did not want to do this bike workshop thing anymore. The above was a part of the decision- one of those cumulative effect things that finally causes something to snap. It’s not that I am no longer interested in helping with bike stuff- I am and will continue to do so. What actually made me stop and think that time spent promoting bicycling was in some part time wasted was a news item about a bear. Actually it was two bears that have been given the tentative collective name of Nanulak, which is a merging of the Inuit words nanuk and aklak- their terms for polar and grizzly bears. The reason for the merging of these two words is that the two bears from 2006 and 2010 were found to be genetic combinations of the grizzly and the polar bear, which seems to indicate that perhaps they are responding to a need for change- they are evolving. The reason we know about these two bears is not through world-advancing research, but because they both were shot and killed by hunters, one of which paid $45K for the "privilege" to do so. It makes me wonder what the countless "save the polar bear" organizations are up to. What I am fairly certain about though is that if Nanulak I and II could talk, or could have spoken before their demise, there are five words that would have been the last thing on their minds.