On a recent fall morning in a small city park shelter in one of the suburbs that make up the Des Moines Metro area in this little swath of the Midwest, activity happened. Twenty-three geocachers were signing or stamping one hundred-nineteen postcards meant for forty-eight states, the District of Columbia, Japan and South Korea. There was a great deal of chatter, a great deal of grumbles of hand cramps and name stamps that were losing ink, and a great deal of camaraderie. More importantly, there was a sense of community as well. Yes, the endeavor was time consuming and even a bit expensive. But it was also a labor of neighborly love for one another.
World Postcard Day was celebrated.
It was kind of apropos that the very same weekend this happened was the weekend of World Communion Sunday. This idea of ecumenical worldwide worship was conceived by a Presbyterian pastor of a historic Pittsburgh church in 1933. The celebration highlights unity, diversity and interconnectedness, something that many strive to achieve.
But not all. There is divisiveness in the world today. In the country in which I live in, political campaigns smear opponents ahead of the election next week. Doubt is being sown. Hatred seems to be on the rise. Frustration, apathy, vitriol have taken the reins.
But there is still some good left. There are still those who instead of trying to divide are trying to build up. There are those trying hard to highlight the neighborly aspects of unity, diversity, interconnectedness that keep the world going. And even though towards the end of August, we lost two celebrities who strived to be that kind of person, some of the world embraces their legacy.
Both of them lived full lives that were their own, extraordinary and very large. And both of them seemed to love everyone and accept everyone. Their loss still weighs heavily months later because of who they were and what they did.
Dolly Parton in particular was known as a good neighbor. She spent a good chunk of her fortune helping others, be it in the form of scholarships to Appalachian teenagers, creating jobs with her Dollywood theme park, giving out millions of books from the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, donating millions to medical research, hospitals, and disaster relief… the stories are endless. “I just give from my heart,” she was known to say.
She was a good neighbor.
Tim Curry also worked tirelessly for a number of charities, though he was a bit more humble about those efforts (which is funny because of how outrageous his characters were!) He was very outspoken about AIDS awareness in research at a time when people were fearful of anyone with the disease. He was an advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community and for civil rights. He donated to a number of causes and helped out with benefits to raise money. He was also known for being a great and dear friend to many.
He was a good neighbor.
“We are love. We are one. We are how we treat each other when the day is done. We are peace. We are war. We are how we treat each other and nothing more.”
~ The Alternate Routes “Nothing More”
Going back to the postcard thing……
As some of you know, I am not the most extroverted person. I am sociable when needed, but I prefer my quiet and solitude as well (which is why I often need my solo geocaching adventures). My introverted nature though also is reflective on the needs of others. But I also feel the need to connect to others in a way that is tangible, hence the Glad Tidings project I started years ago. I don’t want anyone to feel left out.
So when our little geocaching village needed someone to pick up the reins on the World Postcard Day event last year, I took them and ran with it, combining my love for sending all sorts of mail with making sure those in the geocaching community and even beyond found a way to connect. This year, it became something larger…… We had a plan to reach as many geocachers in the United States as we could. While we didn’t send a post card to every single state in the Union (we missed Maine and Delaware), we still managed to send out one hundred nineteen postcards.
It is now the end of October and we are still receiving postcards from others around the world who received a card from that little event at the beginning of the month. The header photo is all of the seventy some odd cards that came directly to my little abode. For a brief moment, hundreds of diverse people became connected and unified through a simple card. We were invited to visit some of the places (and geocaches) that we were being sent cards from. We were invited to connect through messages and trackables. We were sent well wishes from places as far away as Poland, Japan, and South Korea.
We became good neighbors.
In this world of divisiveness, we are more alike than we are different, despite our diversities. We are more giving from our hearts than we are selfish. We are outrageous about being friends and neighbors. And we remember that a little note in the mail can brighten someone’s day. We find those ways to bring about interconnection and unity in neighborly love.
A good neighbor.
It’s magical. And it’s part of the story of life we should be writing.
Stay magical, friends.
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