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In my last post, I discussed the Stamping Out Hunger food drive being held by the postal workers union. It was scheduled for today, and I said in that post that I’d give it a go, I’d put out a bag or two of non-perishable food items for the mail carrier to pick up. I also said that I had some doubts as to whether the pick-up would actually occur, given that the union’s website itself said that some carriers “don’t participate”, since it isn’t a mandatory thing. My friend Mary thereafter wrote in about her past experiences with Stamping Out Hunger, where her own food donations never left her premises. And then last night, my brother told me that he too had heard about this and put out a bag, only to find that it was never touched. <\/p>\n
So my doubt level was pretty high. Nonetheless, I put out two bags this morning, then left for a morning drive to upstate New Jersey for a 3-hour nature hike (near Monksville Reservoir). The hike went fairly well (the weather was cloudy, but no bears, no snakes, hopefully no ticks), although I did get a little too close for comfort to some hunters firing off their guns — good thing that I was wearing my orange hat. I got back to my car around 1 pm and had some lunch, then drove home. And guess what? The food bag was gone! Since I’ve never heard of anything being pilfered from the porch here, I’m going to assume that the local mail carrier actually did “participate”, and that my donation is on the way to a local food panty for the needy. It’s a miracle!!<\/p>\n
Hmmm, let’s see, what dead persons are up for “beatification” (sainthood) in the Catholic Church these days? The church often attributes miracles to a beatification candidate, as a sign from above that they should wear the halo. I would have to guess that a file has been started for Mother Teressa, and food for the underprivileged would be right up her alley. But I’m somewhat more inclined to go with the Trappist monk and writer Thomas Merton on this one . . . Merton was a “man of letters”, remember, and my situation here does involve the movers of those letters. Yea, I’ll assume that Merton looked down and provided his intercession this morning as the postal guy or lady approached the mailboxes on my porch, while I was trying to get some quiet time in out in the wilderness (recall that Merton himself spent his last few years living as a hermit out in the woods on his monastery’s property). <\/p>\n
However, I will leave one suggestion for anyone wanting to participate in a future Stamping Out Hunger day . . . make sure that you put something on the food bags that you leave out saying that this is for Stamping Out Hunger (I stapled the SOH postcard that they sent a few days ago to one of the bags). Otherwise, the carrier can say that they weren’t sure that the bags weren’t left by someone returning from a supermarket, who just happened to temporarily set down their bags near the mail box while tending to something else. In the future, I would suggest that the union instruct everyone who leaves out a bag to clearly mark the bag as intended for Stamping Out Hunger, to avoid any misunderstandings. Perhaps the collection rate would improve somewhat.<\/p>\n
Oh, did you say that you want a picture from the hike? Hey, like a US Postal Service miracle isn’t enough? Well, nonetheless, he’s a little overview of the reservoir from today. And since I’m involving Merton in the day’s proceedings, it seems all the more appropriate that this is called MONKsville Reservoir!<\/p>\n