73 ~ Audience participation!: Doing a doorstep thing.
My recent post on community and my neighbors’ random act of generosity seems to have struck a chord. Community, so essential for we humans, has been eroded for many of us during the isolation of the pandemic (is “social distance” something of an oxymoron?). It’s now time to rebuild and nourish anew our connections. I’d like to offer an idea:
Dear readers, in the coming days consider replicating the example of my neighbors Greg & Linda and their blueberries, and leave a small gift on the doorstep of a neighbor or friend. Preferably something you made or grew yourself, but not necessary. Nor does it have to be food.
Take a pic of the offering you left (or a picture of something someone left for you!), and email it to me, with a few words if you like of description and/or reflection, at hawkcall@yahoo.com. I’ll share your photos here, in upcoming posts. (For extra credit, if you’re of a liberal political persuasion, leave something with a note on the doorstep of a neighbor who is conservative, or vice-versa.)
We can take inspiration from some of the first inhabitants of this land we now call home, the Huron tribe of what is now Ontario. Jean de Brébeuf, a Jesuit who lived amongst the Huron in the early 1600s, wrote about them:
“We notice, foremost, a great love and bond for each other, which they are careful to develop by marriage, by gifts, by their feasts… When they come back from fishing, hunting, and their trading, they share a great deal with one another. If they have something special, even if they have bought it or it has been given to them, they make a feast for the whole village. Their hospitality to every manner of stranger is noteworthy… They give the best of what they have… I do not know whether anything equal to this can be found elsewhere.”
- Huron Relation of 1635, by Jean de Brébeuf (cited in Money and the Soul’s Desires: A Meditation, by Stephen Jenkinson).
Let’s get out there in the coming days and weeks, make like a Huron, and re-build some community with a small gift left on someone’s doorstep. And please send me a chronicle of your doorstep thing - and feel free to share this suggestion through your social media; let’s see how many others we can inspirte to join in.