Manna from Heaven

We have come to think of these finds as manna as in the food that feel from heaven to feed the Israelites. same rules seem to apply. If you gather more than you need it spoils and stacks up.

Once on the way out the door several years ago, my wife said to look for clothes, she explained that the youngest ,then 3 year old, boy had outgrown most of his clothes and shoes and with winter coming had no long pants. Initially I scoffed at the idea. I remarked, "Its not like shopping! You can't go down aisles 3-6 and pick out some new shoes. That night I found in a dumpster a box and a bag exactly as Hoffman describes it neatly folded, still smelling of laundry soap. Inside were Levi's pants, Osh Kosh B'Gosh! overalls, Disney shirts, Nike shoes. Every piece was a fit for the boy, everything neat clean and in perfect condition. I have never doubted again. If she sends me for something I go find it.

Divine Providence aside, I have thought long and hard about why these were in a dumpster at all in a land where people in need do exist. What it comes down to is that people have good intentions and good hearts but are poor at planning and execution. Little junior had apparently hit a growth spurt and quickly outgrown all his clothes without much wear or tear. The problem with what to do with the clothes didn't exist in my family of origin. With 9 bodies in the household they would fit someone eventually. IN modern small families, there isn't anyone to hand down to. Maybe they boxed up the best condition items intending to give to a friend or cousins child, or to donate to charity. At some point they got tired of tripping over it or there was no room in the trunk during a move to a new apartment and into the dumpster it went.

I had a few years of plenty followed by the last two being again lean. I like to dive best when I don't have to when I do have to, it is a little hard on the ego. I have a 12 year old daughter who is very understanding of our impoverished condition but also aware of the expectations regarding fashion of her peers. This summer in anticipation of school she made a few modest requests about style and basics she needed to keep the teasing to a tolerable level. It makes me so sad not to be able to easily provide these things and for the society we live in that creates these little consumer-terrorists.

She is a night-owl and regularly begs to go along on some of my forays into the night. She sees it as a grand adventure filled with the prospect of treasure as well as quality time helping dad. I was explaining the concept of manna to her between dumpsters once and related the story of the box of clothes. She excitedly remarked that's what we need to do about my school clothes. She closed her eyes and channeled something. Whether she pictured the hand of God lovingly placing her wardrobe in a dumpster, or a more pragmatic imagining of where someone that wasteful would live, I didn't ask. She meditated then, eyes popping open, announced her vision.

"I see a big building, apartments with a red-tile roof next to the water." That rung true to me, newer apartments cost more, meaning more discretionary income to waste. I find that the really high end and low end tenants don't waste Its the upwardly striving ones that haven't yet maxed their credit cards that are the mostly like to discard and upgrade. I applied my very best ESP to read her vision and saw a complex on the water I knew about. If not that one, there were plenty nearby.

In the second complex, there was an automated gate, which bothers me not at all, but the cop sitting next to it doing paperwork did. Not dissuaded, we parked on a side street on the opposite end of the complex from the cop, and found the security error where a utility box provides easy access to the top of the fence and over we went. I rarely have to go hand over hand to scale a fence and its good to find the flaws for the heavy laden return trip.

The third dumpster hit. We found a large trash bag from what was obviously a size zero, skin baring coed at the local university nationally known as a party school. My 12 year old loved the tops which she wears modestly with a plain long shirt underneath, giving visual interest while staying comfortably covered up.

She believes now too.

Last night our assignment was to scrounge up a Tanksgiving meal with all the trimmings. I shall relate our success on that next.