service & devotion

What’s cooler than a piece of new art?  New art that’s vintage.  New art that has a story behind it that touches some part of you.  New art from a friend.  New art that makes you smile.   New art that you know exactly what to do with.

My dear friend V recently retired and moved to Thailand, which is very far from me.  This is a man who made me smile nearly every workday for 5.5 years.  Comforted me when I was about to go postal, taught me so many things about life, Buddhism, and the law.  He moved to Thailand with 2 suitcases and a carry-on, which completely blew my mind.  A lifetime of things were given away or sold over the course of several years as he prepared for this life change.  Could you do it?  I could not.

However, being his friend during this time was a good thing as he saved the very best things for his friends.  He was thoughtful about it, giving books to specific people who would like them, or crystal to someone who collects it.  But my favorite items that I got from V were things that I plucked from his home during his moving sale.  Yes, I was a little scavenger, but the irony is, these were things that he thought no one would want, like the print he had hanging over his kitchen sink for the last 20+ years.

I loved it as soon as I saw it.  Why?  The colors, the Japanese aesthetic.  As with everything I got from V, I asked him the story behind it.  It had been a gift in the early 80′s from his childhood best friend, a Castro-era Cuban emigre, who had grown up in West Texas with V, gone to UT with V, and later lived as a gay man in Houston.  On a visit to V in Dallas in the 80′s, he showed up on the doorstep bearing this print.  V said he was that kind of guy – the guy who would always bring something of indeterminate worth and origin, but something always interesting, always with the best manners.  V’s friend died of AIDS soon after bearing this gift, which hung in the same spot until I greedily grabbed it off the wall.

It needs re-framing and re-matting.  It’s stained from years of nicotine floating through the glass.  I love the way it looks with my little pumpkins, even though the print is probably of oranges or persimmons.  I will always love it, as a reminder of people who float through our lives bringing smiles and small gifts.