HOLISTIC EAR-FLAP SMOKER SKIPS MLK/REL LAUNDRY DAY

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Life, actually…

HOLISTIC EAR-FLAP SMOKER SKIPS MLK/REL LAUNDRY DAY

It’s not just any Monday morning. It’s a dozen years ago, when I wrote this note in the Red Clay Diary:

I pull up to the laundry next door to Golden Temple, drop off my week’s worth of wash/dry/fold, not very surprised that the laundry is open despite the fact it’s a national holiday. The laundry lady sighs when I say, “I see y’all are open on Doctor King’s birthday.” Her eyebrow movements tell me a lot.

A scruffy chain-smoking guy in ear-flap hat pulls at the locked Golden Temple door, carefully reads the sign, takes another drag, then saunters on down the street, just barely missing a chance to pick up some holistic medical advice…about how to quit smoking? Maybe?

Eleventh Avenue South is almost barren.

A Christmas tree peeks over the back gate of the pickup truck in front of me, waving a forlorn good-bye to the season.

At the shop, computer tech Daniel reminds me that this is also Robert E. Lee’s birthday. Sorry I forgot, Bob.

I unpack my bag of show-and-tell goodies from yesterday’s speech at the Alabaster public library, receive an e-mail thank-you from one of the attendees, and wonder what it is I said that made a difference in her day.

I pack for shipment a leatherbound limited edition of Ayn Rand’s THE VIRTUE OF SELFISHNESS, prepare rough drafts of the weekly message I’ll be sending out to fans and subscribers, and send a note to Joey Kennedy, thanking him for granting me permission to publish one of his stories in a future Birmingham Arts Journal.

I think about the world and all its incredible inconsistencies, small joys, huge terrors, gentle comforts.

I think how nice it would be to have a national holiday devoted to unselfish kindnesses

Jim Reed (c) 2021 A.D.

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