I have gone to the same church for nearly 30 years. We have attended this church as a family for Perry's whole life, it's the only church setting he's ever known. He has loved attending the Student union since 6th grade. Other than Boy Scouts and school it's the only "socializing" he does. I often wonder what it must be like to be Perry in that setting. Loud. Hundreds of people roaming around. Loud music. Over the years I have met people who know Perry from the student union who have given me a small glimpse, and how much they adore him. The very best glimpse though is a year or so ago Perry show'd me a business card he keeps in his wallet. I was like "what's that?" He was like "its the police officers that's always at the student union. He's a really nice guy. He gave it to me. " I was impressed, he must have made an impression on him enough to show me what he had given to him. And that he must talk to Perry every single Sunday. Which if you know Perry that's not easy task, it takes patience and understanding as Perry generally won't talk back to you.
Today I came home after going to a play right after church, then ran to the grocery store. Perry and Ron had done their usual Sunday shopping, Target and Costco. When I got home I saw an ENORMOUS box of pop tarts. I rarely buy pop tarts even though it's generally Perry's favorite food. The only time I get them is if Perry goes with me to the store. Ron will flat out not buy them as he considers them poison. Even though we don't buy them Perry finds a way to eat pop tarts nearly everyday as they sell them at school and he gets them at church. I don't buy them because he will generally consume the whole box in like 2 days, and I don't want to eat them either.....although they are delicious. So when I saw the box of 48 pop tarts......I was like what on earth???? Perry really got over on his dad, he must have done something amazing. I got busy cooking dinner, I had holler'd for Perry when I first saw the box but he didn't respond so I soon forgot. Eventually everyone was in the same place and Ron said "hey show your mom what you got a church...." He show'd me the ginormous box of pop tarts, I was like "did you win some sort of crazy game?" He was like no the police office gave them to me........say what? what a precious precious gift for Perry. He said he thanked him. And he told me he kept his cool and just said thanks but what he wanted to do was this......and he began jumping around like he had just won the lottery. I am going to leave that precious story right there.......that my friends is truly the "art of neighboring".......
Yes that is a hand painted tarva dresser I won in an auction at IKEA many years ago. You too can try to score a hand painted Tarva dresser on April 26th, at 6pm at IKEA. There's way more dresser's up for grabs than when I scored this one and framed art work done by children of the lakota school district. #ARTFORTARVA