Sicilian DNA

[mallorys_camera]

In the late afternoon, I moseyed out to the garden, where I found Deb and James drinking beer and gabbing away at one of the picnic tables.

I joined them.

Apparently, Regina Coeli Church is kicking the Hyde Park Food Bank out.

With just one month’s notice.

There's a leaky pipe beneath the old convent building that we’ve been using as a distribution center. The priest sez Regina Coeli can’t afford to fix it.

I snorted. “Why? Because the Catholic Church had to pay off so many pedophile victims?”

Regina Coeli did offer us another space approximately half the size. For twice the rent.

I snorted again. “Wait! We’ve actually been paying for that space? They didn’t donate it? The Hyde Park Food Bank is a 501c3, volunteer-run, not-for-profit organization trying to use donated money to feed people who don’t have enough money to buy food. Caring for the poor! Isn’t that what the Catholic Church says it does?”

We’ve done the math: We serve approximately 150 families a month, which works out to around 800 people.

These are people who otherwise would be making the difficult choice between therapeutic drugs or food, or children’s shoes or food, or the electric bill or food.

Or even rent or food.

Shortly, I will be toddling off to do my own monthly shift at the Hyde Park Food Bank.

I’ll be bringing along approximately 20 pounds of tomatoes.

###

Also yesterday, I found out that someone who was once very mean to me had died.

She wasn’t mean to me for no reason: I’d said something thoughtless, which offended her.

But I apologized profusely! I didn’t mean…. I didn’t know…

She ignored the apologies.

I believe in the assumption of good faith. Everyone fucks up; you judge them (if at all) on how they behave after they fuck up.

So, the fact that she ignored my apologies to my mind was a bigger offense than my original transgression.

And I was pleased to learn she was dead. I rejoiced! I read the grieving widower’s blog with a big smile on my face. Learning to live without Laura (not her real name): Her work was just so much more important than my work, and just a few days before we were discussing how I could support her work better—

He is a rather entertaining food writer. Frankly, I think his work is more important.

There were screeds, too, on all the websites of the various ridiculous nonprofits she was associated with, all of them dedicated to Improving Diversity in California—like fuckin’ California needs to be more diverse!

What fuckin’ California needs is to figure out a solution to homelessness.

Anyway, I kept waiting to be horrified by the callousness of my response.

But I wasn’t.

Just went right on gloating. And furthermore, felt perfectly justified in gloating.

Which just goes to prove once again you can take the DNA out of Sicily, but you can’t take Sicily out of the DNA.