The Isolation Blues; reflections during covid-19

“coffee bum on the road…”

Years ago I dropped off a friend of mine at the Greyhound Bus Station in downtown Bangor. You have to get up early in the morning to make it in time to the Bangor station for the New York City departure but I didn’t mind because it gave me an excuse afterwards to walk down the hill to one of my favorite breakfast spots.

It was a cold day in early February and the Bagel Shop, which was located right across the street from where Paddy Murphy’s is now, was the best place in Bangor to get a good bagel or a cheese danish. I sat at a table right beside the front entrance which gave me a good view of the street as well as everyone that came and went from the cafe.

In those days when you hung out in a cafe no one had laptop computers or portable devices; people had newspapers, a book or a magazine to read. In my case I had my knapsack of reading materials and my writing journal along with my bagel, cream-cheese and coffee.

I was good for a couple of hours. But when I sat down at the little table I noticed it wasn’t level and it teetered a bit when I leaned on it with my elbow.  So I reached into my wallet, pulled out a ten dollar bill and started folding it until it formed a square just thick enough to wedge under one of the table legs with the number showing. Now I wouldn’t spill my coffee…  

About twenty minutes later a customer comes over to my table and says, “Excuse me, I just wanted to let you know there’s a ten dollar bill under the leg of your table.” I smiled and briefly explained my ten-dollar plan to balance my table and they smiled too as they walked back to their seat across the cafe. Ten minutes later I notice someone else walking toward me and I already know what they’re going to say…“Did you know there’s a ten dollar bill under the leg of your table?” Two hours later, as I’m still sitting at the table I continue to have people interrupting me, checking to see if I had noticed the ten dollar bill. One person who was walking in my direction – pointing at the floor started to say “Did you know…” before they stopped mid-sentence, nodded their head, smiled and turned around. They figured it out. He knew that I knew and I didn’t have to say a thing. 

My intent was not to conduct a moral social experiment or create a candid camera-like scenario, but it in effect did restore my (feel-good) optimism in the human capacity for going beyond our own limited and jaded self-interest. The people who approached me at my little table at the Bagel Shop only wanted to help point out my good fortune of a ten dollar bill laying next to my foot.  No one asked if they could have it. Of course, I’m not sure how many people saw the 10 dollar bill and were just waiting for me to walk away so they could pick it up themself…but that’s not what this story is about. 

This story is about the basic goodness of so many of us, and about how close we are to connecting to that in ourselves and to every one we meet as we go from one cup of coffee to the next. 

Keep warm and well caffeinated. 
In the woods,
Dave

December 8, 2020