Winnipeg, Manitoba
An
Incident About Ownership
After our showers at the YMCA off of Fermor
Avenue, I decided to walk the short forty-five minute distance to Vishal’s
house for breakfast. I’m not always that
particularly happy waiting for the bus party to get ready. I see it as the opportunity to move my
limbs. On some days, during the wait,
it’s the only change. We’re always on
the move with the bus, having eight hours between each city that we stop at.
At the moment I arrived at Vishal’s home—he
moved in only three days ago—the bus with the boys, pulled up. It parked across the street and everyone
unloaded to the space just next to the curb, onto a fairly fresh-cut lawn. The shoes of the passengers came out and our
group of young guys with three chaperone ladies and three chaperone gents spent
a little extra time on that neighbour’s lawn.
Now this put the neighbours slightly on
edge. Being a bit over-reactive, the
lady on the lawn expressed to me later, “We were in shock. We didn’t know a bus was coming to our
street. Someone burnt down a neighbour’s
garage the other day. You don’t know who
or what people are doing.” She said her
husband was very concerned, especially about the presence of strangers on their
grass.
It was Vrinda, our local leader, who was
also privy to their complaints, and shed some light on the actual ownership of
where the youth were temporarily trampling.
“Doesn’t the city own this portion of the grass?” Her question somewhat quieted the couple.
In any event, a patrol officer was called
to address the situation. She passed by me
in her vehicle after I left with an earful of complaints. She gave a smile and a wave. Apparently she had heard about our program
and the Walking Monk and came to pacify, and do whatever else needed
doing. It was interesting. No property damage was done.
May the Source be with you!
4 km
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