Laughing with the gods

Time has passed. A winter has come to the Pacific Northwest and unlike other years our friends Sam and Sally were not among the snow birds heading west and south to tropical warmth. Instead I watch the dance of layering clothes that work for the Tall, and Round one. Sam's white hair which Sally had cropped close to the neck in early Summer now curls out from under his favorite brown wool cap warming that same neck in December. Soft cotton gloves that he can buy for cheap at the hardware store encase his large hands. The gloves are subtle, and keep up with the traffic of activity from staple gun to paint brush to drill bits and tarp coverings. The long johns Sally ordered in late summer are in constant use under the thrift store jeans that have been washed, washed and washed to clean it of heavy fragranced soaps.

I hear Sal's winter coat, secured early on in their journey, tumbling in the washer. It 'worked' for several weeks, but an innocent act -- tossing it into the drier to remove the damp chill in the sateen lining, stirred up buried scents. Sal is a committed learner, not easily led from a lesson she's determined to master. And yet the loss of the heavy coat closed her down. Her legs are the first to get cold and though every layer of clothes she owns covered her from shoulder to ankle the wet 45 degrees turned her weak. The warmth and safety of their tiny kitchen-home became safe refuge the solid ceramic heater radiated therapeutic rays. Sally soaked in the heat. Then Sam after a week of seeing Sal's walking stick untouched, finally said, "Aren't you gonna try washing that coat again?" And of course she did, knowing this was an option that was close at hand with potential to be a real solution. How many washings will it take to shake the old stink from the old coat? We'll see and if the gods laugh at the sound of the toggles as the coat goes for one more go round in a bath of baking soda, we'll join in. When I was very new at this I judged the laughter of the gods as cruel. History and patient teachers have taught me different. You see, when the gods laugh and you humans join in the combined effect is like one cosmic tickle that loosens the agony and turns it into exquisite ecstacy.