website: youtu.be/unRpG_AnEzE

Maybe even some songs by Canadians, because, well, sorry...

When: Monday nite 2/21, 7:30pm EDT.
(“doors” open at 7 for community hang)
Where: https://youtu.be/unRpG_AnEzE

Who gets 10%: https://rocainc.org/who-we-are/overview/ ROCA's mission is to be a relentless force in disrupting incarceration, poverty, and racism by engaging the young adults, police, and systems at the center of urban violence in relationships to address trauma, find hope, and drive change. Check this TED Talk vid for the best mission statement ever. https://youtu.be/ulLFP8axZVQ

http://paypal.me/vancevancevance or
https://venmo.com/vancevancevance or
a check to VanceFunder P.O. Box 17,
Arlington, MA 02476 for this web-groovery.
Pay or not. Up to you. Let’s stay connected.

This week’s pajamas = yes

PLUS VANCE’S TOE IN THE WATER FIRST LIVE TOUR (ok, one gig) OF 2022:

2/19 BEACON, NY - THE TOWNE CRIER
https://www.townecrier.com/production/vance-gilbert-specil-guest-marc-von-em  
I’m inexpensive, so they’ll have me and you can come cheap!!
Everybody wins.
I hope I remember to wear pants...
Vax and masks required.

I teach and coach stuff.

Good Good Man - the CD - streaming all over, even get one from me.

---------

WEDNESDAY’S RUN

Maybe I looked lost. I was certainly undecided. Right takes me past some Hollywood looking houses, left was more rural suburban. I was half-way into my 4 mile trot, in glorious 40º, when the Honda went past and stopped about 30 yards from this crossroads to my left. Older white lady looks back, drifts forward another ten yards, looks back again, now far enough away that I can no longer see her, but now she's just stopped. She continues on.

Yeah, I said older white lady. Me, today and probably sometimes tomorrow - ageist, racist, sexist, learning, changing. Me today too - self protecting, experienced at Black and its repercussions, news knowledgeable, angry.
Did I mention I was listening to an audiobook about the Tuskegee Airmen? You bet, I too went left at this crossroads.

I’m a slow runner. I run like the man I used to make fun of a decade ago, the “Damn-old-dude-cut-with-the-swinging-arms-shuffle-thing-and-just-walk-you-old-fool!!” guy. A decade will do that to you. Women clap and chide their husbands with “See?” when I go by. But when I made that left, I am certain I was in the 7 minute mile territory of my early 20’s.

I kept that pace for a good 4 minutes. I was running angry, imagining what I’d say when I saw her all like as if I’d catch her car. I was running out my frustration at a world that has me thinking, reacting how I do, how I *have* to, to protect myself. To protect what I stand for and what I won’t stand for. Yeah, not quite Zen.

She was standing on her sidewalk, and when she saw me, grocery bag in one hand, the other staged on the sidewalk wall, she shouts in a German accent “Are you CRAZY??” And here we go.

“And why is that, Ma’am?”

“How can you possibly exercise in this weather...IN SHORTS??”

“How can I not? It’s like summer! I’m in shorts when it’s above 30º! I just keep moving to keep warm...”

She laughed. “I still don’t see how you’re not freezing...”

“Just keeping it kinetic, Ma’am. Can I help with that other bag?”

“That would be a great help, thank you.”

I carry the remaining bag, set it on the porch. She smiles, nods.

“Auf Wiedersehen”, I holler back as I trot down her walkway to the street, not recalling even for a moment the remaining 2 miles back home.

xovg