So if you’ve been following (no pun intended) you know that I came across a man (twice) who calls himself Bean. He spent a bit more than twenty years in the local asylum (and not for dinking mind you), which is now closed.
I didn’t spend a lot of time with Bean, but I really enjoyed the way he could turn a phrase. His language, if not his persona, was a breath of fresh air for my wearied ears. He called his dog, a beagle with unusually long ears (or is that natural – I don’t know), as a ‘low looker’ because his view of the world was from near the earth. I asked his dog’s name and he replied ’I ain’t no ‘thority to name nothin’ also adding that ‘low lookers are more earth than man.’ I think he meant the dog was owned by the earth, not by him, but I didn’t want to ask for a clarification.
The first time Bean passed by me he was on his way to the town diner for ‘lunch yum’ and ‘hog and eggs’ and ‘lip pie.’ Lip pie, apparently, meant that the pie was so good that the flavor stayed on your lips all day long.
Around his shoulder was an orange mesh onion sack filled with trash he collected along his walk to town. I made some judgemental statement at this point to the effect of “Litterers disgust me,” to which he replied that if there wasn’t litter to pick up along his walk, he’d probably never notice all the beauty on the ground. I thought he was talking about the flowers and other growth, but he said although he loves to look at the flowers and such, he’d much rather enjoy the patterns in the dirt and pebbles on the ground. “Dirt’s like snowflakes, taint two the same,” he said.
So maybe the thought for today should be something about all the little patterns of life that we miss throughout our days because we’re so preoccupied by our own agendas and limited understandings.
May all your patterns lead to love today,
peace
