Written by: Karen Powers
I am an English teacher, so please forgive me for starting off this blog entry by writing about a book. One of my favorite books is Annie Dillard’s “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.” In it, Dillard writes about growing up in Pittsburgh, where one of her most memorable childhood activities was to hide pennies somewhere along the sidewalk for strangers to find. She would write in chalk on the sidewalk “surprise ahead” or “money this way,” and then sit back and imagine the joy on passersby’s faces when they discovered the hidden treasure. Reading about this makes me think about the last time I bothered to stop to pick up a penny – or even a quarter, for that matter. How much money would I have to find on the sidewalk in order to not just stop to pick it up, but to actually be filled with joy?
