WHO GETS 10%: https://eldercare.org/ Somerville/Cambridge Elder Services. They enable older adults and younger people with disabilities to remain living in their own or their families’ homes for as long as they choose to do so.

Order the CD or pay for this web groovery via:
http://paypal.me/vancevancevance or
https://venmo.com/vancevancevance or
VanceFunder P.O. Box 17, Arlington, MA 02476.
Pay what you like

VANCE’S NEW ENGLAND COFFEEHOUSE TOUR

(ok Bethlehem, PA up in there, but still, my agent doesn’t seem to want me to leave New England):

4/20 - HAVERHILL, MA - NEW MOON COFFEEHOUSE https://newmooncoffeehouse.org/vance-gilbert-april-20-2024  

4/21 - PLAINFIELD, VT - PLAINFIELD OPERA HOUSE https://vancegilbert.com/calendar/event/4048  

4/27 - LEXINGTON, MA - HANCOCK CHURST OF CHRIST https://www.hancockchurch.org/coffeehouse/  

4/28 - BETHLEHEM, PA - GODFREY DANIELS - https://godfreydaniels.org/event/vance-gilbert-april-28-2024/  

5/4 - WEST HARTFORD, CT SOUNDING BOARD UU CHURCH - https://thesoundingboard.org/  

5/18 - MANSFIELD, MA ROSE GARDEN COFFEEHOUSE - https://vancegilbert.com/calendar/event/4017  

----------

LEARNING FORGIVENESS

I know a couple that took in a homeless, injured friend of theirs. Handicapped by an accident, losing their job, partner, and housing, this friend was on the living room couch for the better portion of a year. After a while the hosts' nerves were frayed by what may seem to be the smallest thing - this friend would turn the toilet paper roll so that it was out at the top. I mean even taking a currently mounted roll and flipping it. That’s heresy in some houses.

Just before things came to a boil and things got said, one of the couple said to the other “You know, truth is, that toilet paper is the absolutely only this in this person’s life that they can exert any effect on at all.” This couple went with the new toilet paper orientation until the friend got on their feet physically and metaphorically, amen.

That kind of forgiveness and letting go is hardest in my book. That and taking criticism - warranted or not - and rolling with it. I suck at both and I’m 60-and-then-some years old. I’d like to have figured it out by now. I’d like to have been better at these things, say, when I was 16 or 23 or something. Why so late? I’m reminded that there are whole countries, governing bodies, consortiums, hundreds of years old, that are as immature and nascent as I am at taking the second look with peaceful intent. God I hate having to think about the things.

Singing scales is actually good for you. It’s a hateful feeling, but it teaches your brain not just the scale’s melodies, but it teaches your brain how to learn these melodies. Forgiveness and letting go I suspect are not just ol' de rigeur for that person you know that is so eternally zen and groovy. It’s a practiced, conscious, constant bubbling pot of gruel. I think.

Here’s to lovingly and always consciously remembering to wipe front to back, no matter how the paper comes off of the roll.

———

P.S. If I was to rename myself Trotty McJoggenstein, what book would I be in?

XOVG