Thomas Moore--Saturday Night

You had some experiences? I asked you a question; you there, reading these words with your eyes, feeling a slight flush because you know I am talking about you. So, you had some experiences?

Perhaps you have driven along a coast at sunset and saw the sun light the ocean on fire as it made it's days journey around the world. Cool. I bet that was beautiful or whatever. Maybe you have paraglided off a mountain top in Tibet with the Dali Lama. Transcendental, right? At least you got that going for you. Heck, there is a chance that you rock climbed down the freakin Grand Canyon and then hiked back up the very same way. I bet that was hard or something.

Well, good for you and your experiences. But I got one that will blow all those out of the water. So, sorry in advance.

Today, Wale and I cleaned eight toilets, two floors and three mops in a Taiwanese bakery's bathrooms.

OMGz

That.
Just.
Happened.

Mind, we weren't the only folks working today by any means. We had folks that were mixing cookie dough with corn flakes. Peeps that were plopping said cereal covered dough balls on baking sheets. And at least 12 hands putting cookies in packages, sealing them, stacking them ready for shipping.

All this was going on at the Children Are Us bakery here in Taipei, a foundation set up to help adults in the community that suffer from Down's Syndrome, cerebral palsy and other mental illnesses (this taken from the information that we were given at the bakery).

And so we arrived, suited up in aprons, hairnets and masks and got to work in our respective positions. Wale and I started by cleaning baking sheets and big plastic tubs. We were among 10 or so of the workers who were equally suited out as us. Now, earlier I was thinking over what I was going to write about my day and I thought about how I could really only see the eyes of those around me as their mouths and noses were covered, and I was thinking about how even though I only had those two little portions of their faces to see, I could instantly tell when they were smiling. I thought of something like this; a true smile is the heart on fire, lighting up the eyes. Then I realized that would make a great Hallmark Card and that put me off a bit to be honest.

But the point is that I speak, as of now, four or five phrases in Chinese and the workers spoke around the same number in English. But we got the work done through short conversations (mostly just, "Yes!" or "very good!") and through high fives. And we got the work done through our smiles, through the fact that I would finish cleaning a pan, high five the person beside me and watch their eyes smile at me, hear their muffled laughter through their masks, catch a glimpse of Wale having a similar conversation with another worker. We didn't need a common language or a common culture or life experience. All we needed was a warm-water-soaked rag, some greasy pans and two eyes showing the smile that was tucked away behind our masks.