Thunder and lightning. Very, very frightening....

8/1

For the second time this week I am escorting a blind person across the street. He comes from Capitol Hall. Is wearing a dashiki. And one of those African hats. Like Deacon James wears, who I just saw at the coffee vendor’s stand. As we cross the street, he’s excited about going to tonight’s Lincoln Center Out of Door’s festival’s Festival au desert..a celebration of music form French West Africa. I wish I could go with him

When I get back, Marie comes in with Rick and Mike and her son Zachary.They want a tour of the building. See what we’ve got. Talk about what’s  possible.Zacahary is  having a reaction to the building. We get into a conversation about whether buildings  have souls. And the ghost sightings we have had here.  

What happened to Pastor Downner?

While we’re talking, Keith looks in, sees we’re busy and walks out.

As we finish, a man with an intense look on his face is sitting and waiting. The look in his eyes should tell me. Soon he’s off on one of those amazing rants that roll like a rap and have the sound of sense but are completely somewhere else. He lays out all the cards from his wallet like pieces from a mad man’s game of CLUE. Nothing adds up or makes sense. 

He gives me his sister’s name and last known whereabouts. I go to the Internet. Nothing there. Then he tells me it’s been 20 years since they’ve spoken. Oh.

Stories of marriage. Betrayal. Children. Accusations. A stream that keeps flowing. There’s only four people God has not fucked with, he says.

Buddha.

Jesus Christ,

The fickle finger of fate.

And the dinosaur.

Well all right, then.

He’s going to tell the President that he’s got to stop with all this Steamboat Annie bull shit and declare his independence of George Washington’s dollars with their tell tale pyramids. And that he will do so as a Jew, goddamn it.

I ask what he wants. And he asks for a donation. I tell him the church has no money. I have no money. All I have is $5.

I’ll take the 5, he says.

I wish I could help you find a place to go, I say.

Find a place to go? Can you do the fandango? Scaramocuch, scaramouch will you do the fandango? Thunderbolt and lightning..

And I reply, very, very frightnening..

And he goes galileo, galileo...

And I say, enough. And he says, here’s your 5 back. And walks out. With the 5. Well, he says, I can be a handyman in Central Park. On his way out, he says, Like Sister Sledge , We are family..

And I say, I’ve got all my sisters and me..and he’s gone. And I’m thinking of the 1979 Pirates. Willie Stargell. Dave Parker. 

While I was talking with this visitor, Daniele is talking with Dan S, who used to be an intern here in the ’80’s with Pastor Davidson. he wa san outreach worker. Now he’s a chaplain at an AIDS facility. back when he was here, it was the crack epidemic. the crack war. As he can see, that war is over. But another continues.

Our former resident has been found hiding out again. We escort him out. Roger and David S come in to talk about how hard it is to secure the place with an ongoing game of hide and seek going on.

Listening to crazy people is exhausting. You enter into  their world. Try to follow along. And then it’s like trying to break free of a drowning swimmer. 

I go out to the second movie in our Palestine film festival, at Advent again, Bottle in the Gaza Sea. A crazy woman keeps going to the refreshment table and talking ti herself. As I walk back to the church, a steady stream of crazies keep yelling things at me. What’s going on? Finally, I see Sean in his wheel chair and say, Hi. i try to walk on, but he wants to talk

Still apologetic. If he gets his electric wheel hair, can he store it at the church? Of course. just spoke to ho daughter RIF the first time in seven years. She’s been accepted at a g and t school. (Gifted and talented...). He’s all apolologetic. For giving me a hard time doesn't know what happens. Talks about his plans to get his SRO room.

Look Sean I say. I know the real you, the you you hide deep inside is a good man. That’s the man I know. That’s the man who will win if you give him a chance. 

I am very tired. Any way the wind blows....