34. Money For Nothing

Bouncer (Brother Bilhild of Thuringia) found our stash of beans seriously compromised by mice this morning.  We will probably not have enough now to get us through the winter.  Agnes says we'll get by somehow and I'm sure we will.  There are kind neighbors on the road up here.  Last year a fellow  drove  his pickup truck in the driveway with a good size deer in the back.   We converted all of it into a stew that lasted much of the winter.

Lance, the man who recently built his mansion on the point, brought a load of groceries around Christmas time and said all the neighbors had thrown in their spare food items, but the mix of cans and fresh stuff was so balanced that I think it may have been bought at once and it probably came  entirely from Lance’s pocket.  He stayed for a cup of coffee and I told him I thought it was very nice of him to bring the food.  He said he thought it was very nice of us to live in poverty so that he could feel good helping us out.  That's an interesting insight, but Lance can find impoverished folks anywhere.

Lance appears to be in his fifties and although he built his home down the road on the overlook possibly ten years ago, he evidently has some history with the monastery.  I was surprised when he helped me put away the food that he seemed to know the layout of the pantry and kitchen.

“It’s almost as if you lived here,” I laughed.  “Were you once a Brother here before my time? 

“No,” he said.  “I’m just good at guessing where the food goes.”

“I’d remember you if you were here in the last thirty years,” I said.  “You would have had to have been here as a kid.”

The Brothers have discussed aid such as food stamps and cash assistance, but not in the context of 11 guys sitting on the side of the hill up here cashing welfare checks.  Rather, our quandary is whether we would individually accept help if we had to let the monastery go and each were to find himself living alone and penniless.   Obviously, the younger brothers would be expected to find jobs and work.  Us old guys would do the best we could.