My 12 Days of Christmas-Day 5

Alright, lets begin with a disclaimer. First I am normally, and still consider myself to be a good samaritan when it comes to lost items. Tonight I decided to put a timeline on the recollection of lost gloves. Say, if a glove wasn't claimed from the fence post in a day or two I could take it and redistribute it to someone in need. I take myself on "inspiration walks" that are a nonlinear ramble that often clears my head and gives me some fresh insight. Tonight was a well deserved walk after a day spent writing about yesterday.

As I walk I always continue to find lost gloves. I came up with the idea that I could redistribute these lost gloves to the homeless citizens that I encounter in my journeys. I thought to myself that if gloves were not claimed by the time the chuch bell tolls tonight, then it would be finders keepers and I would collect them for redistribution to the homeless. I decided that that was justifiable as tomarrow was trash collection day and they usually get thrown in with a nearby building's usual garbage. They are percieved by many to be garbage like a can or bottle.

I came past some knit ones who had been left on a fence post for days. I know because I put them there. Ha! that would be my first collection. I tried to think which street had the gorgeous men's glove the other day. I remembered as I walked and headed over to that street again. For some reason I remember the fences where I place these gloves. But nope, the glove was gone. Well good, I thought to myself maybe the owner came back.

I took no more than six steps on down the street when I saw a note taped to a shopping bag. I stopped and glanced shyly back towards the people coming towards me on the sidewalk. I stepped back to the bag even though I felt a little snoopy. The note was written in a beautiful hand. It read "Good CD's-classical-please take." I gasped and peered into the bag. As I peeked in I even quietly said "oh my God" outloud before turning to the umber toned three story whose occupants had left this secret gift. I had felt like I was being watched. There inside the doorway was the man who had been walking behind me who was now also turning over his shoulder as he entered the umber building. His silvered wild hair was like Beethoven himself. He looked me over trying to decern if I would be a fan of classical music. I think my dropped open mouth and prayerlike mutterings must have given him all he needed to know. He smiled and added a sincere nod before turning to go indoors.

I tied to rationalize the act as it was just too perfectly unexplainable. Here I was combing the streets for gloves to possibly save a few people from frostbitten fingers this season and I was rewarded almost immediately with 17 cd's of music created with some of the world's most talented hands. At each stoplight my hand dove into the bag to pull out recorded performances by Cedric Tiberghien, Yo- Yo Ma, San francisco and Chicago Symphany Orchestra's and more. I was stumbling home shaking my head thinking these are the albums that I would buy if I could ever justify the expense. Surely something I could never do at this moment. But maybe the most wonderful part was the three second exchange of smiles as two good deed doers crossed paths in the night.

This glove relocation is dedicated to my friend Karl whose empathy for the homeless is constant and true