Live in the Joy!

Tonight a friend and I took a walk along the canal after dinner at the Creation Cafe downtown. While we were resting, a gentleman passed us with a funky hat and a large innertube (the kind you pull behind a speedboat). He was clearly the operator of one of the Gondola's on the Canal. Curiosity got the best of us and we stopped to ask what he was going to do with his tube. (We could just envision him strapping a small child to it and pulling it down the canal at .05 miles an hour).

He explained that he had to park the Gondola under the bridge for the night and would be floating back to the platform on the tube. And then we continued to chat for the next 20 minutes. What an inspiring man!! While he did TALK about his love for life, he didn't have to- it was written all over his face and on every word he spoke. He talked of spending the last 2o summers, sharing in people's celebrations as they came to ride for anniversaries, birthdays, proposals... He talked about how soothing and historic the rides are and how they inspire hope in those who venture out. He talked about how much he LOVED living-in and sharing-in other people's joy, exclaiming: "you HAVE to live in the joy!"

When we asked what he did the other half of the year, we weren't at all prepared as he casually told us that he does "different things". "This fall I'm going to Miami to perform in the old folks theatre... they'll make an exception for my age". The year before, he spent the winter in Las Vegas working in a recovery center for young addicts (a few of whom returned to Indiana with him to complete a Gondola Apprenticeship!). The year before that, he worked as a singer in Japan.

What an amazing approach to life. Meet Golfrado the Gondolier: