Free the chickens

6/15

After a run around the reservoir, we stop at Joe’s then I open the church for Amanda to do an early morning rehearsal. 

After my neighborhood lectionary group and a stop to review finances with Nan (we’re still ok, barely..the tight rope act continues...) I’m back and it’s all of us working to make final connections around the concert. 

In the middle of all this, a guy walks in, with unruly hair, glasses and intense eyes. I’m still open to the possibility that he could be ok. Introduces himself as Moose, but that’s just a nickname, my real name is El Ad.  He tells us it’s not about money. And that he has a story to to tell about how he got here. Which makes me think it will be about money.

Tells us he was in Brooklyn and walked by a shop filled with chickens. They will all be slaughtered, they will all die. It is his mission to buy those chickens freedom. What will he do with them? Set them free, maybe Central Park.  Amanda, who actually knows something about chickens, having three of her own in Portland, suggests that might not be such a good idea. But couldn’t a church like this make a contribution?  

The church is broke, Amanda says. He looks at me imploringly, the church is broke, I say. 

Couldn’t you even spare $10,000? He asks. That’s a lot of money for chickens I say. But at what price  freedom?, he says, no cost is too great. He finally understands that we will not be contributing to the chicken liberation fund. 

(The chicken story will come up later in the day while we are visiting Rachel. Turns out she grew up on a farm. Amanda and she talk about chickens, goats...)

We are all experiencing anxiety.  Dave is hard at work on the lights, Piano Dan tuning away.  

Just like Christmas, or awaiting the birth of a child, there comes a point in any project where you just have to let go and allow it to happen, where there is nothing more you can do and what will be is going to happen. When you just let it be. We’re nearing that point.

The day at the church ends at 10PM, unloading three cases of wine, courtesy of RL.