Asakiyume mita

I wanted to try to bring some of the good things that I saw in neighborhoods in Leticia to my neighborhood in western Massachusetts--the sense of (mild) commerce and work mixed in with homes, of people doing things by foot or small transport, right in their neighborhoods, interacting with each other in the spaces by their homes rather than life lived in a series of space stations (the home station, the work station, the shopping station, the kids' activities stations) only reachable in your spaceship, which you pilot through the vacuum of space.

To that end, I decided to press the little wagon that wakanomori had built for my bicycle into service to sell ice creams in the neighborhood. But not to earn money: for one thing, I already have a job that earns me much more. For another, I think it would be, shall we say, confusing for my neighbors. But selling things for a cause is okay: people are used to that idea. One of my neighbors was super enthusiastic about the idea and came up with the notion of choosing a different local cause each week to raise money for (and suggested that we do rounds once a week all through the summer). The advantage of two of us is that if one of us can't do it, the other one can take charge.

The Icicle Bicycle--not yet loaded with ice cream, but with a llama balloon.



So we launched the Icicle Bicycle! We've done it for three weeks now, and it's gotten (touch wood) really good reception so far. We have some repeat customers, and each week some new ones. We get parents with little kids, teens on their own, and adults. It's wonderful!

Last week was also Tanabata, Japan's version of the pan-East Asian star festival, which commemorates the one day a year when the Weaver Maid and the Oxherd Boy (aka the stars Vega and Altair) cross the Heavenly River to see each other. Japan celebrates it on July 7, and one of the traditions is to hang wishes on decorated branches of bamboo. So I invited people who were buying ice cream to hang wishes on a branch of, uhhh, burning bush:



I kept the branch in my front yard for a few days for people to enjoy, but rain was causing the wishes to fall off, so I took everything down, and I confess I read the wishes. And oh my heart, such a mix...

( Tanabata wishes )

Please join me in praying for all these wishes to be fulfilled, especially the one about the father.

And if you're in my neighborhood on a Friday around 6 pm, you can pick up an ice cream for a dollar ;-) This week's cause is our town library. I'll be away, but if it doesn't rain, the Icicle Bicycle will be making rounds.

This day had some marvel to it. The neighborhood felt very festive--the neighbors next to us and diagonally across the street had both put up tents for their kids to play in, and the across-the-street neighbors were sitting outside all day, chatting with various visitors, masked. Their little boy and the next-door little boy were playing together, masked, so let it not be said that little kids won't wear masks.

Here's the next-door neighbor, posing for me:



His little sister wasn't wearing a mask at this moment, but later on she was sporting a disposable one:



The tall one came over, first time since the plague struck, and the healing angel and her significant other came over too, and we toasted marshmallows and had lettuce that another neighbor had given us, and tomatoes and pickles and sausages and eggs. The wood from the fire smelled as fragrant as incense.

Coming home from dropping the tall one back at his apartment, I saw the full moon, blushing pink. This photo is a poor snapshot--I know you will find beautiful photos of tonight's moon if you look. But I pulled into an empty parking lot to get this one. Sometimes blurry is just right.



And then later this evening, someone in the apartment complex through the woods from us was shooting off pretty serious fireworks, and you could make them out through the nighttime trees, and they were beautiful. This doesn't capture it, except to give you the feel of mysterious lights in the darkness:



Have people watched Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts? We just finished season one, and I loved the soundtrack so much! I played everyone the song from the last episode in season one, "Purple Jaguar Eye"
Oh purple jaguar eye
Open up and be alive
See the world in vivid colors
There's no turning back
You've got all the love you need
To run surefooted, newly freed