Day 25. Denver

Day 25 29^th

Today was a quite day.

We said our farewells to Robin & his room mates

& they dropped us at Fluid Coffee Bar, where we wrote, did internet uploading & worked on footage from 11 until closing time at 10pm. Not once did the staff there hassle us for taking up their tables with the purchase of only one coffee. We thank you so much Fluid Coffee Bar staff.

At times the computer work got disheartening. Uploading photos & having the computer repeatedly crash wears unnourished nerves a little.

However, the day was fruitful & Nate the legend managed to fly out a great video, utilising the space he could that you can view at the top left of the screen there.

I found Downtown Denver is pretty quiet on a Sunday.

Paul talked with people while his computer was commandeered & met Shortie, a homeless window washer who was working the cafe windows. As it would happen, Pam had sent us a box of goodies to go through & find homes for. Shortie was the first to receive of her generosity. A super nice top & a couple of pairs of socks. Perfect, as he had boots with no socks to pad them out with.
Shortie & I had a big chat in the garden outside & he told me about his worries about sin. How he would do things just coz they made him feel good at the time & then he’d feel really bad afterwards & worry about hell.

I don’t know much, but I do know I hate fear, so I told shorty my belief about 'sin & condemnation' using my favourite verse – “All things are permissible; they’re just not all beneficial. * Shortie seemed to get a kick out of it being put that way.

A decision of integrity needed to be made today. How to leave Denver.

Denver was about the last place we could hop a freight train & be pretty sure we knew where we were going, before the lines become a spaghetti junction. The question is, is train jumping something that lies with the ethics of what we’re doing?

Myself, I tend to live with the idea that, if you’re not breaking the reason for the rule, you’re not breaking the rule. Paul takes a little more of a hard line, which is why he’s head monk. Responsibility. Not my forte.
Anyway, after a bit of discussion & advice from outside, the conclusion was made that stealing free passage from the railways is not conducive with our message, so therefore we should find other means of getting out of Denver.

At about 11.30pm, Paul wasn’t done & we utilised the same free wireless server from in the street.

With Nate sleeping on a bench & Paul working on the net, I decided to go for a walk. A day’s writing & uploading repeatedly, tends to make a mind cloud up a little.
As I passed a small, outside pub, a young lady jumped up & came running out, telling me I had things to tell her.

It turned out she had biked past me earlier in the day when I was taking the lonely photo above.

Her name eludes me, but her middle name was Elisabeth, with an s. I’m hoping she’s going to read this & be upset enough to write in to remind me of her first name. (So sorry)

She talked with me about people wanting to do good for other people, but the curse of our generation being busyness. We discussed the best way to help people do good is to help them see the good in themselves. We also talked on the differences or similarities between good being love or God being love.

I was glad I went walk about.

We finally left the café at about 1.30, having decided against the easily accessible rooftop nearby, or the dumpsters, or the dirt piles, for sleep. We met Mark on the way to the bus station who was doing pretty well considering the hallucinogenic realm he was in. He told us of his religious up bringing & how he knew love & wished his parents could accept that. That while he may not fit the mould they would like, he’s still a good person regardless.

Paul managed to wangle a free bus to the depths of the night & then another free coach to get us out of Denver to a place where a hitch was more likely.

We got out on the off ramp to the highway, found a ‘monk hotel’, but the hotel was full. So instead of sleeping under some bushes, we eventually settled on a grassy highway side area. The goat bones we found were a little disconcerting, but it was 3.30am. It was getting too late to be picky. Most things were looking good.

* (1 Cor 10.23)