"No Starch, Right" - Commentary by Tony Seton

No Starch, Right

I came across a quote the other day that seemed to fit my reflections about moving from Redding to Mill Valley. It was spoken by a nineteenth century man named Phillips Brooks, a bishop and an orator, who said, "Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks."

Indeed, one of my struggles up in the rural wilds of the North State was with the locals failing to set a higher standard than mediocrity. Oh sure there were some who stood out, but for the most part, the folks behind the counters in Redding were second-rate, and didn’t try harder.

This came home ever more strongly to me when I walked into a dry cleaners where I used to have my shirts done almost six years ago. The Asian woman behind the counter recognized me and seemed genuinely pleased to see me. "You’re Mr. Seton," she said. Then she looked at the shirts I put on the counter and observed, "You wear same shirts. No starch, right?"

In Redding I had used my wife’s dry cleaner until she jacked up her rates from $1.25 to $1.50 per shirt. When I complained, she told me that the cost of soap had gone up. The next dry cleaner, who saw me for four years, never called me by name. Sometimes he had to be reminded of it. His rate climbed steadily so that it was $1.75 when I left.

Chou still charges $1.25 here in Mill Valley, where the nannies drive their charges around BMW wagons. She must have gotten a great deal on soap.

It may seem like a silly point, to be welcomed by a dry cleaner, but for me it was just another sign that I was back among the living. According to my view of a Larger Reality, there are always signs of us being on the right track or not, and these signs readily show up when we seek confirmation.

There have been other signs that this was a good move for me. One that was stark and delicious was when I left a note for my puppy-sitting owner that I wanted to make an angel hair pasta with a special clam sauce dinner for her and her family. The next day, when I moved into my new abode, I discovered that the previous tenants had forgotten to pack out...three packages of angel hair pasta and two cans of clams.

It may sound frou-frou -- aw, it’s just a coincidence -- but to this mind-frolicky, hopes-drenched soul it was another sign that the angels were laughing with me again.

And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.