Thursday
With surprisingly little effort we are up this morning and out to our sunrise spot. It is a gorgeous morning and a beautiful sunrise, a long series of changing beams of light and slowly shifting colors.
We turn around and look out to sea; the moon is much higher on the horizon today as its cycle begins to wane.
It stands as tangible evidence of our ride on this orbiting rock, hurtling through the infinite expanse of the celestial. It highlights for me one of the central paradoxes of a conscious existence – I am but a speck in this universe but I am always everything. I and I. Today it’s I and I and Sweetie Pie. I am glad that I stand here with her in my arms.
We head down for Tai Chi on the cliffs again this morning then off to Easy Rock for coffee. Biscuit treats are distributed and Scar joins us for his daily jaunt, waiting outside again. Max and Sweetie Pie greet each other like old friends. She orders an orange juice after we get our first cup, she needs vitamins and hydration. Max says OK and pulls out a big basket of oranges! “Just a couple of minutes,” he says. We wander and drink and when we come back there is a very tall glass of fresh squeezed orange juice. Did I mention how sweet Jamaican oranges are? Juiced, they are out of this world! Sweetie Pie, who is physically incapable of gulping, finishes it very quickly. I think she is worried about me gulping it. Her fears are well founded.
Having managed to shuffle some dollars this morning with Charlie’s assistance (Sorry Max, I won’t access financial accounts from ANY kiosk or café) we head into town confident we can get a much needed infusion of capital. We go into the shopping center where I’ve been told numerous times there is an ATM out front. We walk around and still can’t find it. I ask a shopkeeper setting up for the day and they say “Yah, mon, just out front.” We start walking back toward the road. No, mon, out front,” says the shopkeeper and he points to a walkway that heads AWAY from the road. We walk back and it opens onto a large parking lot and there on the left, boom, the ATM. Then I look over and, BAM, there’s the Hi Lo!! Damn, we’ve been looking for that place all week! I have to laugh. Out front? Out back? There IS a big parking lot back thereA brief wait puts some cash back in our pockets and we’re under way.
As we are headed back I see a young boy, I’d say somewhere between 7 and 9, milling around by the road and an older man back off the road a ways kind of picking his fingers. The kid sees us, shoots a look at the old man and does a little pull together, only sort of in reverse. He starts a bit of a mopey shuffle toward us. I look at the kid for a moment and then stare at the old man. Just before the kid is to us and starts to open his mouth the old man says something I don’t quite catch and the kid peels off.
I am angry, disgusted and sad. I remember GerryG talking about how frustrated he was with people teaching young children to beg. I think my awareness of that probably short circuits the pinch here but not until we see the full mechanics play out. What to do? I want to help this child, things are obviously difficult for him but I’m pretty damn sure giving him anything in this situation will not be beneficial. What I really want to do is go punch Fagin in the mouth. Small failure on the peace and understanding front. Not a single word passes between any of us. Sweetie Pie doesn’t really pick up on all of this but a little ways up the road she says, “Sweetie, you’re making your face…”
