Home Van Letter - 10/24/08

BLANKETS!

I anticipate that we are going to have an unprecedented need for blankets throughout the coming months. Although numbers did dip on the previous two driveouts, last night we were back over 300 (based on the number of water bottles and takeout bags I put on the van), with many new faces. So please donate blankets if you can.
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The big world has felt like an alien place to me for a very long time now. Starting the Home Van project was a way to create a village, within what e.e. cummings, in a different context, called "The Enormous Room." A village where people love and care for one another. We have become that. We will stay that as long as we can. My wish for these hard times is that unbridled greed, dishonesty and materialism will give way to a new sense of community and connection for all of us - rich and poor, old and young.

I grew up in Prunewhip, Vermont, long celebrated in song and story. I dedicate the following number to G. M. She knows who she is. (It will help you remember to bring blankets).

Back in Prunewhip, Vermont
It was so cold, people's shadows froze,
leaving big black patches on the snow
all over town.
It was so cold little kids came home
covered with snotsicles and tearsicles
and had to be hacked out of their
snowsuits with a handsaw.
It was so cold the Eagle Scouts gave a
merit badge to anyone who took a bath between
November and March.
Condemned criminals were sentenced to walk across
town after dark with no mittens.
They say Vermonters don't talk much. It's true.
Too many of them had their tongues freeze in mid-curl,
trying to say 'Good Mornin' to someone outside the
Post Office.
It was so cold the preacher had to tell people hell was
located at the North Pole or everyone would have wanted to go.


love, arupa
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The Home Van needs creamy peanut butter, jelly, bottled water, Vienna sausages, candles, white tube socks, tents, blankets, comforters and sleeping bags. Call 372-4825 to arrange for dropoff. Financial donations to the Home Van should be made out to St. Vincent De Paul Society, earmarked for the Home Van, and mailed to 307 SE 6th Street, Gainesville, FL 32601.

All donations are tax deductible.