Freestyle Volunteer

The joy of freestyle connections – January 7, 2009 The late Kurt Vonnegut often arranged his days in his Manhattan neighborhood to give him a chance at running into all sorts of people. He’d type his rough drafts and blue-pencil them instead of writing with a computer, because it meant he’d need to call his typist to check on her availability. This gave him the opportunity to digress into several enjoyable minutes with her on the phone. Then he’d have to buy an envelope for mailing her the draft, so he’d visit the newsstand across the street. There, he wrote, “I have to get in line because there are people buying candy and all that sort of thing, and I talk to them.” After sealing his draft in the envelope he’d walk “to the postal convenience center down the block…. One time I had my pocket picked in there and got to meet a cop and tell him about it…. And I go home. And I’ve had a hell of a good time. I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don’t let anybody tell you any different.” (“Technology and Me,” Harper’s, September 1996, p. 26). Vonnegut captures the feelings I have when errands take me out in Seattle’s streets among familiar people, some of them homeless. It’s a happy two or three hours of dilly-dallying along, and at this point in my life it seems good reason for being alive. Two weeks ago, for example: After my weekly coffee with Gerald I walk down University Way half-slipping in the slush and catch sight of Rob, who’s waving to me. Rob lives in the tent city located in a U-District church parking lot. We trudge the snowy sidewalk together, debating whether wool is warmer than fleece. I turn west toward Trader Joe’s because today I need to buy milk. Beneath the TJ overhang Joyce has a dozen of her color photographs for sale, arranged on a big piece of cardboard. We talk about her newest shot. I ask how giving up smoking is going and we high-five her second month of no cigarettes. On my way back home I see Audrey selling Real Change News near McDonald’s. I buy a paper, and she asks do I want a song – Audrey has a fabulous voice. Ten years ago when we first met, she lived in a high cavelike space under the freeway. Back then she sang for money, and when I offered her food instead of cash as is my habit with spare-changers, she touched my arm: “Do you think you could get me some skin lotion?” Yes, I could. This afternoon Audrey is clean-and-sober, a requirement for being a vendor of Seattle’s finest activist weekly. I tell her how well she looks, and she grins, “Thank the Lord, I’m not intoxicated!” And I go home. And I’ve had a hell of a good time. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007; was a prolific American novelist known for works such as Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Cat’s Cradle (1963), and Breakfast of Champions (1973). He was also known for his humanist beliefs and being honorary president of the American Humanist Association. Source: Freestyle Volunteer website, article contributed by award-winning teacher, Dr. Judy Lightfoot, with the Seattle school district, for 25 years, eight years at colleges, including four years at the University of Washington.