Something New on the Avenue

Someone has constructed and planted a Little Free Library on University Avenue, conveniently located near the elementary school and clearly visible to all comers coming up from the highway or down from the University. I wonder who?

At the moment, it holds no books, so I am sorely tempted to place some inside. However, it might be best to await news. I suspect it's coming soon in The Sewanee Mountain Messenger!

A Gallery with Heart

I traveled to Chattanooga today to meet my friend B, and together we met a miracle worker at

 

click above to go to gallery

What's the miracle? The healing power of art. Imagine a gallery, therapeutic community center, studio, community garden, little free library, meeting space all together in one beautifully appointed refurbished building. 

"How did you get the idea for this place?" I asked Ellen (a visionary doer) as she worked on lunch (a hearty lasagna).

"One day, I noticed the courtyard obelisk covered with beautiful tiles made by homeless folks, and I knew what I had to do. This is the result," she said.

I enjoyed my outing with B -- brunch, Niedlov Breadworks, the Hunter Museum of Art's special exhibition of African-American art, cafe au lait, happy chat with a friend -- but it's the gallery and the angel who created it and the blind man debarking a bus, asking "Are you friends of Ellen's?" on entering for lunch and the art-making heart-mending community that I'll remember.

What lasts?

A reminder that there really are good people in the world.