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Scrub and listen
Oct. 5th, 2008 10:04 pmEvery second Friday, I volunteer for Quest Food Exchange in their store. Mostly, I clean. Often I clean things that haven't been cleaned in a very long time, because the staff's too busy and the other volunteers don't want to tackle the scum. While I scrub, I listen to people. Some of the time, they are even talking to me.
There’s always new people around Quest: customers I haven't seen before, of course, but also new staff people and volunteers. Volunteers sometimes only come once. I still haven't seen the ex-addict again; she helped me clean shelves one day and told me about coming from Ontario to Vancouver to get clean. She took a long bus trip across the country to come here, because Vancouver's so notorious as a Canadian drug center that she figured that if she can stay clean here, she can stay clean anywhere. I hope she's doing well.
This Friday, L.A. volunteered for the first time. He tells us repeatedly that he is from Los Angeles. He compares everything to Los Angeles. He talks. He corners another volunteer and tells her all about his political beliefs. And he talks. He tells one of the staff people all about the superiority of organic food. And he talks. He shares with us his opinions on Canadians, cell phones, food prices, green potatoes, and everything else that enters into his head over the course of four hours.
He is very sure of himself. He talks a little too fast and a little too loudly. He is completely confident of his every opinion, and no facts can sway him... mostly because he doesn't listen to them. He asks questions like he is interested in the other person, but everything is an excuse to talk about himself.
At some point, he corners another of the regular volunteers. The Seeker has been, among other things, a Hare Krishna, a Buddhist, and now he is a raw foodist. Maybe because of those things, or maybe despite them, he is a fun and sweet guy. He talks briefly about a meditation retreat he went on once: weeks of sitting all day, every day. L.A. is very inspired by this; inspired to praise The Seeker as incredibly deep and spiritual. The Seeker can barely get a word in edgewise. We never get to hear much more about his experience on the retreat, but we get to hear a lot about what L.A. thinks about The Seeker's retreat.
I also remove a layer of black scum from the edge of the freezer and old juice drips from the outside of the cooler. I think I learn more from that than L.A. actually learned in his whole afternoon of conversations.
There’s always new people around Quest: customers I haven't seen before, of course, but also new staff people and volunteers. Volunteers sometimes only come once. I still haven't seen the ex-addict again; she helped me clean shelves one day and told me about coming from Ontario to Vancouver to get clean. She took a long bus trip across the country to come here, because Vancouver's so notorious as a Canadian drug center that she figured that if she can stay clean here, she can stay clean anywhere. I hope she's doing well.
This Friday, L.A. volunteered for the first time. He tells us repeatedly that he is from Los Angeles. He compares everything to Los Angeles. He talks. He corners another volunteer and tells her all about his political beliefs. And he talks. He tells one of the staff people all about the superiority of organic food. And he talks. He shares with us his opinions on Canadians, cell phones, food prices, green potatoes, and everything else that enters into his head over the course of four hours.
He is very sure of himself. He talks a little too fast and a little too loudly. He is completely confident of his every opinion, and no facts can sway him... mostly because he doesn't listen to them. He asks questions like he is interested in the other person, but everything is an excuse to talk about himself.
At some point, he corners another of the regular volunteers. The Seeker has been, among other things, a Hare Krishna, a Buddhist, and now he is a raw foodist. Maybe because of those things, or maybe despite them, he is a fun and sweet guy. He talks briefly about a meditation retreat he went on once: weeks of sitting all day, every day. L.A. is very inspired by this; inspired to praise The Seeker as incredibly deep and spiritual. The Seeker can barely get a word in edgewise. We never get to hear much more about his experience on the retreat, but we get to hear a lot about what L.A. thinks about The Seeker's retreat.
I also remove a layer of black scum from the edge of the freezer and old juice drips from the outside of the cooler. I think I learn more from that than L.A. actually learned in his whole afternoon of conversations.
