Checkmate

This is me and Rafael. We’re having a cup of tea outside Slow Train today. Mora took the photo for us, you can see her reflection in the glass.

I managed to keep dodging Rafael’s Queen for an hour today. She is a ruthless hunter on the chess board, and I’ve been her prey for a few weeks running. But the chase is getting longer each time. Maybe one day I’ll be the hunter. After chess, we sit and talk a bit, me and Rafael that is, about life in Sheridan, about Open Door church, about many things. Today we decided that next week after the game, we’re going to walk around and find hands-on, in-the-moment, right-on-the-spot ways to improve the appearance and attitude of our town. Like pulling staples out of that telephone pole across the street that’s been host to a thousand flyers. Like picking up discarded cups and papers. We wondered what kind of difference it would make in this town if everyone just took a few minutes to pick up something or repaint something or remove something or add something that improves the appearance and attitude of this beautiful town.