rarely have there been
causes more deserving of
our celebration

*
I spotted a refreshing piece of news coverage this past week, when it became known that Sister Mary Scullion was named to Time‘s 100 Most Influential list. For those not in the know, Sister Mary is a Philadelphia nun who co-founded Project H.O.M.E., a cause I’ve personally supported for the past few years. Earlier this year, I decided to donate whatever 2009 profits my book yields to this worthy cause.

Sister Mary and the Project H.O.M.E. community have made much more than a dent in the scourge of homelessness in the City of Brotherly Love, and all I really want to say is that it’s good to see an influential persons list that includes those who don’t spend their lives as celebrities or self-serving power brokers. I can think of few people I would be happier to see on the Time list than Sister Mary Scullion.

**
I spent this past Saturday morning and early afternoon celebrating the first communion of the firstborn daughter of one of my dearest old friends. People who know me know I adore children — not just my incredible collection of nieces and nephews (one of whom celebrated her own first communion the Saturday prior) — perhaps because I retain such a connection to my own childhood. It was nice to see their family celebrate such a fine moment, and especially nice to have been included in it.

***
Earlier today I stopped in a the Yum Yum Bake Shop on the corner. I was trying to choose an appropriate combination of donuts from those available. The girl behind the counter remarked, somewhat apologetically, that the selection was “sparse.” It occurred to me how rarely words like “sparse” are used, especially by younger folks (the young woman behind the counter appeared to be in her late teens, possibly early twenties).

I complimented her choice of words, at which point she commented that she is sometimes “verbose.” I responded she must be a writer. She said she was.

I guess we’re everywhere.

(Sorry, by the way, for not handwriting the haiku — it was an afterthought)