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A Spiritually Enlightening Online Magazine. May's Theme: "Cycles" I met a young man at a street fair last summer when I was reading tarot in my tent. That whole summer was windy and cool and it was everything we could do to keep the tent from becoming a kite. My husband had the clever idea of buying bags of chicken feed to use as weights. 200 pounds of chicken feed will keep most things from blowing away in less than storm-warning winds. To make sure, we also tied the tent to a lamp post and hitched up the sides of the tent to let the breeze blow through. We would be secure enough.
"The beauty of the idea," my husband mused, impressed with his clever solution, "is that we use the chicken feed as cat litter. It's even cheaper than cat litter." We nodded in agreement at the instant recycling properties of his answer to the immediate problem and I was glad suddenly that the chicken feed weights were pre-cat.
A young man saw us and offered his help to us while we were setting up. He was thin and dressed in an atmospheric dark trench coat. He introduced himself and started to help us hold things down while we tied the ropes to the weights, then velcroed and tied the tent sides and top to the frame. After we were fairly sure that the whole thing wasn't going to blow away, I invited him to sit and talk a while. He was interested in tarot.
It was fun to find someone with a more than cursory knowledge of tarot, more than a giggling interest, someone with the possibility of interest in learning more. So we talked a while. Like a lot of people bitten by hard times, he doesn't have a car or a job. He walks everywhere and spends time at the Public Library. By luck if not completely by design, he has a smaller than average carbon footprint, using the library computer, reading the library books, walking instead of burning fossil fuels to go a few blocks.
He gets a charge out of helping people like us for the chance to strike up conversation and expand his world. He helped a bookseller across the way from us at the fair too, balancing his time between my tent and the bookseller, talking tarot, talking books. He kept an eye out when some kids looked like they might get into a scuffle which turned out to be more catcalling than anything else. I was relieved the fair guards and the bicycle-riding policemen assisted with encouraging the young men to move on so that others could enjoy the fair.
I learned a lot more about Andrew. He likes dragons. He would love to have a job, not even anything fancy. Fry cook would do. He likes cooking. But jobs are scarce now, especially for someone who does not have a car. He's not a 24-year-old skateboarder. He's just trying to rise above difficult circumstances.
I found a couple of dragon-themed tarot decks that I had gotten for a song and gave them to him later in the fall. I watched him post on Facebook, sometimes the cry of youth everywhere, "I'm bored!" Sometimes, he would post on a few other topics. Most often, I would see, "Is anybody out there?"
I watched him, a bright enough young man discouraged. Not unlike another young friend of mine, he'd like a girlfriend but can't afford one. He'd like to move from his father's house where he is the cook and cleaning crew, but he can't afford to. He'd like to do something meaningful with his life, something resonant that helps lift him out of a cycle of poverty. He's not into gangs or violence or drugs or other crime.
His birthday came recently and I saw a random post from him on Facebook, "I wish I had a bike."
"Walk over here and get it," I posted back. "It's in my backyard and I need to get rid of it." He was elated. I warned my husband of the good fortune of gifting the unused 10-speed to someone who could really use it.
"It needs tires," my husband said. "We could get him tires too." Good idea!
Andrew walked over to my house and looked at the bike. He was pleased. It was "vintage" but at least it was a 10-speed and not a girl's bike. We put it in the back of the car and went to the bike shop downtown. The diagnosis was dire though and the patient was terminal.
"She'll cost you at least $200 for the tires and to fix the gears." The Bike Man had spoken.
"Can you at least take her out behind the barn and put her down easy?" I joked. The Bike Man laughed and said he could. "Come on, Andrew, let's go."
We drove to Wal-Mart and bought a new bike for about half what the Bike Man wanted to turn the old 10-speed from a poor quality broken bike to a poor quality working bike. And Andrew had wheels! His world was opening up.
We put the new bike in the back of the car. In the car from Wal-Mart to his friend's house, Andrew told me more of his story. He had been born with cerebral palsy but through determination, his own especially, he had worked his way through it so that the only remaining trace was one eye that is not quite as straight as it might be. He doesn't realize that it doesn't detract that much from his appearance, I think. He lives with his father and older brother who seem different in character from him. His mother lives in another state and he has younger brothers who don't live with him. The sense of personal isolation was wrenching. And his sense of sudden joy and optimism was bounding.
He could get a lock for the bicycle easily. And not to worry about any adjustments to tighten anything; his father the mechanic has all the tools in the world. Just about anything could be fixed if all the pieces were there.
Yes, I thought. Just about anything could be.
I dropped Andrew and the bike off at his friend's house. The bike had wheels. Andrew had wings.
"Don't forget your end of the bargain," I said. He stopped and looked at me, startled.
"I want you to tell me what you think of the Two of Pentacles next week. Some people think they are like the wheels of a bicycle." The Two of Pentacles suggests the balance in the material world. It can be juggling priorities in a practical way. It can be balancing your checkbook. It can be the balance of nature. It can be the cycle of life and sometimes breaking the cycle of poverty. Sometimes, all it takes is a little push and you're on your way. It's a lot like a little push given to me a long, long time ago.
Best wishes.
2 of Pentacles, Victorian Trade Card Tarot, (c) Copyright 2010 Marcia McCord, all rights reserved. Marcia McCord recently joined us (2009) as an Associate Proofreading Editor here at Timeless Spirit Magazine. Marcia is a professional tarot reader and computer analyst. She lives with her husband, five cats and one very patient cocker spaniel near San Francisco. Be sure to check out her blog!
This just in! Marcia McCord's two new tarot decks are now available for purchase, $25 USD plus postage. For more information, visit her blog:
marciamccordtarotreader.blogspot.com
Volume 8 Issue 4 ISSN# 1708-3265
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Aleesha Stephenson
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Marcia McCord
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Tarot Deck Reviews:
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Deva Premal and The Gyuto Monks of Tibet
Go-Ray & Duke
877MyJuicer.com
Let's Talk Tarot
~Rolling Around Again~
with Marcia McCord
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