Its on the Wall

I had a bit of a let down today when I got to my next site in France. Nothing at all wrong with the site a beautiful bit of France. Some lovely scenery and walks. But hey my water system had stopped working. 

Before I say anymore the painting above is a little marvel of nature. Here is a tree that in some way or other has been badly damaged either by nature or just humanity . But it has struck back and survived in spite of all. nature giving a helping hand to the weak.

This reminded me of  a cafe I once visited. I was there having an expresso, my desire. People were coming into the cafe  ordering coffee. The thing was they were ordering three coffees one for each of the two and then they said one for the wall. A man came in and ordered two coffees, one for himself and one for the wall.

The waiter delivered the order of a coffee and charged the person for the two. He then stuck a slip on the wall. 

The next time I visited the cafe on my morning walk I saw the same thing happening again. people ordering coffee and sometime a croissant. One for themselves and one for the wall.

But this morning an old dignified gentleman came into the cafe. He looked at the wall and took his seat. When the waiter arrived he ordered an expresso and croissant, from the wall. The waiter spoke to him kindly and served him his expresso and croissant. Then he reached over and removed one of the papers from the wall.

An old poor man had what he desired and no dignity lost. 

This was the people of the village looking after their own in every sense of the word.

I felt so moved.

How wonderful it would be if every cafe had just such a wall. Yes now and then some person would abuse the system but does that make it less value to care for others.

Have a good day.