It seems like everywhere I go I am met with generosity and hospitality. Sometimes it comes from people I know well, sometimes from total strangers. And every time I come face to face with it, I am humbled by the thought that maybe we as a species really are inherently good. Now I present to the reader three case studies.
I work for amazing people. Lance and Anna Hanson are not only ambitious and dedicated people (How else could they get a winery such as ours off the ground and selling great wine to diverse markets?) but they are also genuinely generous people. Even before I began working here, I saw evidence of this. I came out to visit Colin last February and since I flew into Denver I was getting rides to various places in Colorado as I could find them, taking buses when necessary. And when I needed to get back to Denver, Lance overheard and said, "Well, I needed to go some time this week to make deliveries. How 'bout you just come along with me?" And so it was that I first got to know Lance during the 5 hour ride to Denver.
I was further impressed once I arrived mid-May to work. During my first week at the winery it seemed as though the official parting line was not "bye," or "see you tomorrow," but rather, "if you need anything, just let us know." And they were/are true to their word! Once in conversation it came up that I needed a desk. Oh, we have a huge old antique mahogany desk that we're not using. Just drive it over in the truck some time. [mouth drops] It could also be mentioned that about half (or more) of the furniture in our house is likewise borrowed from the Hansons. (Not to mention, two out of four eggs in the cheesecake I made a few weeks ago came from their refrigerator. What good neighbors!)
But they are not only materially generous! If we have friends coming to visit, "sure you can take a day off in the middle of the week to go hiking/swimming/climbing with them!" Uh, uh, uh... thanks... And with their time they are equally gracious. The latest update on Guinnevere is that she not only had a fallen-apart exhaust pipe, but then she wouldn't even start so that I could take her to the shop. I couldn't afford a tow truck so Lance donated a morning to - only in rural America - towing my car behind their truck, all the way down the mesa to the nearest garage. (I was in the driver's seat, downshifting the dead car while headed downhill and praying to all sorts of things that I not miss seeing him break...)
Sometimes I am just overwhelmed by the kindness of other people. In another instance, I met with some amazing hospitality from some people I didn't even know. About a week ago, some friends and I went to U-pick sweet cherries from some of the local folks' orchard on our mesa. Colin and I went back again two days later (60 lbs. wasn't enough; we picked another 60 so as to be safe...), and upon weighing out we mentioned the pitting/preserving party we were hosting that night, dependant in part on the one pitter we were borrowing from people in town. Oh, well do you need pitters? asked Jeanie (at that point I still didn't even know her name). I have two that you could certainly borrow. I love to help out young folks like yourselves. (Well that sure is nice of you!)
The pitters were a huge help, and when I returned them I was formerly introduced to Jeanie and Bob when she invited me into their home, made me sample some delicious rhubarb jam they had just bought and the sat me down to be visited with for what turned out to be an hour or so. Wow. Talk about friendly! And when I finally had to leave (the garden did need to be watered) it was only with the invitation to borrow their juicer and the request that I bring my parents over when they came to visit me that I was able to make it out the door. Wow. I LOVE people.
More recently, some acquaintances, or friends of friends..., came to my rescue. In fact, now I sit in their living room, using their internet, beginning to digest the piece of chocolate zucchini cake they offered to me - and I barely even knew them in college (perhaps an understatement. I did live with one friend for a summer and work with her for a short while later on.)!
The story goes that once upon a time I was trying to fly to Chicago, meet my cousin at O'Hare (she was flying from Denver) and then take the train to South Bend where we would then be picked up by another cousin. My flight out of Denver missed a HUGE storm. Hers was not so lucky. After a while of sitting around in O'Hare I received a call from her saying that she would be delayed considerably, perhaps not even arriving in Chicago the same day. Shucks. A few calls later and I was talking to Adrienne - the aforementioned friend, and sister of a another good friend (Yay Goshen connectivity!). Why yes I could come and crash at her and her housemates' apartment mid-week with almost no warning. An hour or so later, and I was sitting up chatting with them, a bottle of wine newly opened. And though I barely new two of three of them, I felt so welcomed and at home.
So, the moral of the story to those who have made it reading this far is this: be generous! And know that it is appreciated! And an important companion point I believe is this: Accept generosity with the same vigor with which you share it. I am becoming more and more convinced of the innate goodness of peoples' hearts, so now it seems to me that we all just need to work to facilitate the exchange of all this goodness!
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