I didn’t make the deadline, so should I make it?

Such is a question I’ve been asking round and around in my head. Like a cyclone they spin over and over again. Time is such a constraint. If only there was a way to break the bound.

There is. There always is a way out. Surely I just have to think. Surely it’s not as simple as …

Jak: Don’t combine stripes and plaids! *laughs* Okay…

Boldo: Seriously, be yourself, do your own thing, try to make things better, don’t go looking for people to tell you what to do… except if they tell you and I to match stripes with plaids.

Jak: Okay, listen to that person, gotcha….. I know when I first came in here, I asked you what quests you would have people do. Building a community garden-

Boldo: Get involved in your neighborhood. Get involved in your city. Get involved in your neighborhood. Get involved in your community. I mean, there’s a million things. What is your interest? They need volunteers, everything. Everything. You want to volunteer at the Zoo? You want to volunteer at the Museum of Play? You wanna volunteer at the Memorial lArt Gallery? You into that stuff? Fine. But, there’s schools needs volunteers. Every organization needs volunteers. Get involved. Ya know?

Jak: You had a lot of community organizations that you spoke of when we last met. I know that there are volunteer sites. Are there any off the top of your head you can refer people to?

Boldo: Okay, I don’t think there’s an actual clearing house of not-for-profit organizations you can volunteer in. If there is one, it would probably be related to the courts. Because of community service and them giving you an option. But, you’ve heard of dozens of them. You see community gardens all over  the city. You see most of the time you live in a place that has a community organization. Join it. There’s plenty, I want to say legacy ones, like… the Rotary club, the Lions Club, Knights of Columbus… There’s plenty of those older ones, too. Veterans organizations, particularly if you’re a veteran. There are plenty of these out there, but there’s also ones around various interests like homelessness. Saint Joes house of mercy, Open door mission, all need volunteers. The more political? Metro justice. I’ve listed a bunch of arts and science related ones. I mean, your church probably has a volunteer organizations, okay? And then there are larger church organizations like…. The only one I’m gonna remember is the United Christian Leadership Ministries, but there are plenty of other ones that you can get involved in. All of them work on issues. All the big church organizations has something in particular they’re working on, and , you know, there’s food pantries, there’s places that provide dinners once a week, or weekly, or daily, or whatnot. Blessed Sacrament comes immediately to mind, but there are a pile of other ones. So, you know… all the hospitals have volunteers. And, you know, what in your life experience, where do you feel you should give back? Or where do you want to give back? There’s even small community places like the Flying Squirrel Community Spaces. You can go volunteer. They do a lot of different events and activities. Every Farmers market has volunteer positions. I can go on. They’re just everywhere in my mind. In my mind, I see them everywhere. And, you know, there’s, I think last time i mentioned, I dont even remember the name of it now, its a group that basically makes a deal with a bar in an area to have people come and pick up bags of garbage, then afterwards they get a drink at the bar. So, there are groups like that out there.

Jak: A lot of them out there, you just have to look.

Boldo: Right, that’s pretty much my opinion. And, you know, if you’re on FaceBook there are Facebook Events which lists many more things going on, so… you know, the fact that you don’t know of any is no excuse, it just means you aren’t looking. Ya know?… The uh…. Yeah, I’m done here.

Jak: No no, you’re good. Um… I know in my personal experience, I mean, a lot of people that I talk with aren’t in Rochester, so they aren’t in a place thats familiar. Like to me, Rochester [NY] is a relatively decent place where you can get out, you can find, um, a place to and people to connect with. Other people feel a bit more isolated. If there’s somebody like that in Rochester or in other places, do you have any advice that you could possibly give those other people who might feel isolated?

Boldo: If you’re feeling isolated, it’s because you’re not getting out. Get out and volunteer, okay? I suppose because of the closing of rural hospitals you may be a hundred miles from the closest hospital. And if you happen to live in one of those completely rinky dink rural areas, MOVE. Okay? I don’t even know why anyone would ever live there.

Jak: Life situations.

Boldo: If you’re in Nowhere Montana or North Dakota or what not and you complain that you’re isolated, it’s because you’re isolated. And, you know, you need to go to a place that has more of an urban center, but, you know, I knew people in the southern tier who lived in Cohocton, relatively small town, and the whole county I think had 30,000 people in it, so, ya know, but yet in the town of Cohocton they ran a weekly food kitchen – food pantry, excuse me, that you could be involved in. The church there had a visiting to elderly in shut ins…

Jak: Oh, that’s nice, yeah!

Boldo: Yeah. These are the sort of things – there was a school there that you could’ve volunteered in, and I knew people who lived there who did all of those things. So… In fact, they had a game club at the school that was run by a volunteer. So, there’s plenty of options if you want to do something to make it a reality.

Jak: Okay… So basically..

Boldo: If you live in a place where they don’t, or you say there is none, why are you there? Makes no sense to me.

Jak: So.. Basically Maek It Happen.

Boldo: Make It Happen. Right. Basically, most people are the thing holding them back. Okay? And, if you want to go out and be less isolated, the first thing to do is go out and be less isolated. I mean, seriously, there’s all sorts of rec leagues in your area, there’s probably groups that run some forms of dancing and probably bingo or something else. Go Out. Get out of your house, go do something. Quite sitting there and complaining.

Mistakes will come and go. People will come and go. What will always remain is gravity. Such is what I get now, after re-evaluating what’s important to me, truly. To do that, I must rest.