Branching like Libraries

Today was the re-opening of the Page Street Library.  Circus Center did a marvelous thing in associating itself with the event.  A circus should be part of its neighborhood. Clowns should be unleashed to mingle with the community.  Besides, books are a fantastic thing.  "Save the Books."
I was in heaven! :)
It was an especially cold day in San Francisco, though not in the usual humid way.  No wind blowing from the Pacific Ocean.  No clouds running across the sky.  It was quite sunny in the Upper Haight.

I dressed in clown, putting a 'costume' together out of slightly mismatched regular clothes (I found my new favorite shirt at the Sebastopol Goodwill, after our tea house 'gig, which is another story :)).  I packed some juggling rings, balls, scarves, and clubs, as well as a kazoo and a bundle of sage.  I brought a camera, because I'm leaning to "think business"- which simply means that I'd like to make a living following my passion

On my way there I remembered a sign I thought of making.  That's when I saw a cardboard box on the sidewalk (or did I see the box first?) so I decided to tear off a panel and make that sign.
I didn't have a sharpie on hand, unfortunately.  But I walked across the street and in the paint shop, and asked the clerk if he had a marker I could borrow.  He smiled, at my clothes perhaps, and handed me a sharpie for me to make my sign: "Today is Beauty-Full Day".  When he saw what I was doing he gave me an even better, thicker black marker.  He smiled at me.

I want to walk the street and look at people in the eyes. I want to draw or create a smile on their face, or even just a look of recognition.  I want us to acknowledge one another when we cross paths on the streets.  I want us to acknowledge a lot of things.
I want to put on a big plastic red nose just to see people have all kinds of reactions.

Today a little black girl sang 'Get Up Stand Up' with me.  It was sunny.

So I guess it was my first official 'walk around gig'.  I had not fully realized what it meant; I had not realized that this form of clowning is a huge part of what I love!  This way of creating connections with strangers, the way I like to make connections all the time.  To dance whenever I feel like dancing, to interject in random conversations, to sing nursery rhymes with a group of kids, to wonder at magic, to love people.

Axe! Ache! Ase!