Out on Thursday, on my way to the Library, and, while standing and having a cigarette outside before entering whom should I encounter...
...but "Tat". I'll call him Tat because of his very obvious Tattoos. He's an old regular from the restaurant, super-nice guy, and we're talking briefly, he's working a job, just on his way to lunch, maybe I should come along? He'll buy...
...and I'm in the process of politely declining, don't care to be a bother, have work to do, bleah bleah bleah when he tells me it's at the Soup Kitchen. You know, the place above where I volunteer..
Now I'm in. Pride be damned, there's a reason it's a deadly sin, I'm in, like Flynn, I've never gone, I've never been, but - lets see where my labors are going...
So, first, a varied buffet of sorts, served up by volunteers, of whom there's a host upstairs I've never met.
It's busy, and I know quite a few of the people, it's busy, maybe 70, 100 people, there's the the Pastor that runs the Charity and another one that assists, and there's some of the street people and a host of other people that I know to see but not so much to speak to.
The "Church", if I can call it that, a large room that weekdays is the soup kitchen and on week-ends is home to the 'congregation', but - we'll come back to that.
So, catch up with Tat, move it from acquaintance into friendship, and I discover that his Tats are actually spiritual sigil's representing his belief in Christ...
OK.
OK.
The hook is set, and - clearly, I have my own interpretations, understandings of it all, remedial at best and certainly not worth sharing, it's far more interesting to hear what other people think...
And soon we're sitting with Pastor.... and Tat is catching me up and I'm asking about his ex and his kids and getting all this, and discovering a lot about JC that I never new, for example that Black Sabbath really weren't a bad band, I mean, read their lyrics (and here he's pulling some up on his phone) and wow- what do you know? I should pick up some of their records...
...and so forth, discovering that Tat knows various of the other customers from the restaurant, the Sunday Crowd, and that Tat has the gift of prophecy and can channel the Holy Ghost and that cute so and so is pretty good at speaking in tongues...
...and we're discovering a surprising number of people we have in common, mutual acquaintances, he knows Dan from the restaurant, Dan's been a good friend to him, and so on and so forth...
Meanwhile I'm trying to get a handle.
Discover that Tat knows so and so, great customer from the restaurant, and that - while I knew that So and So went to Church I'm discovering that Tat goes as well, and that - believe it or not...
...and wow, how long have I worked under this rabbit hole without ever suspecting it existed...
...it soon becomes apparent that the Pastor is the sanest one in all of Christendom....until he speaks, but for the moment he's largely silent, working off his charismatic reputation...
This is apparently one of the town's better kept secrets, although I've clearly known about it all along, it attracts a wide variety of the towns non-homeless and relatively normal people...I've heard from girls who've told me of guys wanting to take them there on a first or second date, and damn, I'm jealous, I've always prided myself on the low bar I've set for dating but apparently I can limbo down a little further, adapt a little better to the Kootenay life...
And so it goes, and I'm glad of the society, glad to know everyone a little bit better, and - "hey - there's a non-denominational worship tomorrow night are you going to come out?"..."of course, why would I miss it...." and this question will answer itself in another post...