in pontiac our navigators led us to a large public park. large, old oak trees gave a comforting cathedral effect. on the way there had been a large amount of bagels dumpstered, and snacking ensued. we then decided to move farther back in the park to be more discreet, in case we decided to camp illegally. teams of brave scouts set out while some stayed behind with our stuff.
the cupcake story:
while scouting opportunities with laughing moon and slow truth we stopped at a church to see if we could fill water for our kitchen. while slow truth was inside i noticed some folks arriving home with groceries and i decided to approach them. this led to a wonderful interaction with the daughter who lived there across from the church with her mother. she had vision for bringing the community together and creating more of a loving, neighborly way of life. we asked her if we could help her realize any of her dreams. she mentioned that she had seen some cupcakes in a magazine that she really wanted to try making. lemon-raspberry cupcakes. slow truth and i are both into baking, so i assured her that one of us could be able to help her. "then we could go pass them out to people in the neighborhood!" i added. "Yeah! we could give them to old folks!" she declared. she was going to give us a call the next day to check in, but i don't think we ever got a call. good idea though! wasn't it?
chris clark story:
Pastor Keys, who we met at the first church, where we asked for water, told us we should talk to Pastor Clark. he is part of Grace Gospel Fellowship near downtown Pontiac. so the day after our arrival i went before lunch to seek him out.
crossing the street to the church i passed in front of a guy who then pulled around the corner and into the parking lot of the church, where we met. turns out his name was clark too. Chris Clark. he asked me from inside the car if i was a juggler, and i told him that i was a superhero, Hoop Rider, then a little more about what i was up to. he had thought i was a juggler who he had met before. he was interested in my story and invited us to come visit him at his house. it seemed like he really wanted someone to hang out with. i said we would also love to help him with anything he might need done around the place and he said there was something he had been meaning to get around to taking care of in the yard... that sealed it.
the next day Wandering Wolf, Periphery, Soular Eclipse, and i spent some time visiting with him at his house, swapping stories, and then cleared this corner of his yard that was taken over mainly by burdock. the burs stuck to our clothes and it was a real task. of course i had to build a compost pile out of all that material. i figured that the seeds would just have to be accepted... and it probably would not be used for fertilizing food crops anyway. chris was receptive to it, and said he had envisioned having a community garden in this lot, which was adjacent to the home he had bought for a steal.
the sad story was that he was being run out of the neighborhood by racist neighbors. his house had been broken into and he lived in fear of it happening again. when he saw people on the street the vibe was antagonistic and people would say mean things to him. he had tried to stay positive and not let it get to him, but it was becoming more difficult. we all encouraged him to keep choosing love, and tried to just listen as best we could, as he seemed to just need to talk about it with someone.
he is a juggler and he shared the videos of his appearances on the tonight show and the david letterman show. we encouraged him to come out after dinner, meet the rest of the superhero squad, and bring his juggling stuff. he did. he also stayed for our 'thanking and sharing circle' at the end of the night and let some tears come out. we were all touched by his vulnerability and felt something really powerful was going on.
we considered going to give him a goodbye circle the following day, but did not fit it in.
but something very interesting happened to bring us together with him again. i accidentally left the hula hoop i carry at the produce stand near where we were staying. i didn't realize it until we were at our next destination, the Song and Spirit Institute for Peace in Berkley. the idea came to me, why not ask chris to go grab it and invite him to visit us at this place? he was very receptive to the idea, and the folks of Song and Spirit were interested in meeting him too, as a potential collaborator. the hoop was sitting right where i had left it several hours before and chris came down the next morning for breakfast with it!
this time we did give him a goodbye circle. he also chose a superhero name: Magma Man
i did end up talking with Pastor Clark after meeting chris. it was a very good interaction with the pastor and he told me i should go see the volunteer coordinator at the downtown office. that led to an opportunity the following day to work at a site where a house was just being finished that would house women and children. Infinity Man and i spent an hour cleaning the basement. it felt good to me to follow through on that service after making the connection with this organization.
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