Living with Chronic Adventure Syndrome

I had another adventure tonight to add to my collection. When I was young I searched for adventure. Now adventure just comes and finds me. It saves a lot of time.

I was leaving a large bookstore this evening when a run-down woman with a stained green jacket and a tangled gray ponytail came up to me in the parking lot and asked for spare change. I responded to her request as I do to all such queries. "I don't do money, but if you're hungry I'll buy you a sandwich."

She accepted my offer and then added, "I need money too." I repeated that I did not do money but would do the sandwich. That is called my broken record technique. Just keep repeating what I will and will not do. She accepted that, and followed me into the bookstore. We went over to the cafe. She said she wanted a ham and cheese sandwich and I ordered one for her. I seemed to hear an inner voice warning me that this woman had no boundaries, and that I would need good ones. So I remained in a kind but extremely firm mode. She asked for money again and seemed agitated. I responded calmly, telling her the sandwich would be ready soon. She mentioned her urgent need to catch a certain bus or, she said, she would be out in the cold for hours. It did not make a great deal of sense, but I repeated that the sandwich would soon be arriving. It did. She put her arm around me, hugged me, and said thanks, I kept a close eye on my purse and pockets, and also said God bless you and good luck catching your bus. I did my best to be wary like a snake and innocent like a dove, as I was once counseled to be.

Mother Teresa said that Jesus often comes to us in distressing disguise. That was true tonight.