free

Here is the beautiful and slightly imbalanced thing about working for tips: you can be totally broke and living in abundance, at the same time. And you can forget how to tell the difference. And, depending on the day, this can get you into trouble or it can save you.

Earlier, it got me into trouble. I'm living a little close to the edge right now, with 3 or 4 part-time/occasional/on-call jobs. So that for part of this week, my bank account had a negative balance. Okay, maybe that's more than close to the edge. But I tell it because I would like to commend Wells Fargo for their surprising humanness, in consenting to drop the fees-on-fees they were imposing on me. Crazy, to penalize someone for not having any money by charging them more money. But great to see that the people, now and then, are still better than their computers.

Right now, this freedom's kind of entertaining. I just put my last two dollars in the gas tank, headed to another night of work at Domino's, and felt nothing but gratitude that I'm one of the lucky ones who has some work at all. Before that, I enjoyed a fabulous free lunch, courtesy of Whole Foods Market. Their food samples today were particularly commendable. Pumpkin pate on flatbread. Brie on toast. Guacamole and chips. Lemon ginger snaps. Cheeses of every year, make and model. Of course this meal only consisted of one or two bites of each lovely item, but that's the sort of minimal elegance people pay high dollar for, in a town like this, right? They were even offering wine tastings, but I passed that one by since I'm on the way to work. With this rich gourmet food, you gotta draw the line somewhere.

There's so much that's free out there, right this minute. Music on the radio. Books, CDs and internet at the library. Sunlight, wind, treegold, birdsong, earthshine. Kindness, now and then, from a fellow human being. I could continue the list, if I had a little more time free. Tonight at work I'm asking for good tips, so the side of life that requires money can keep working. But I'm also engaging in the larger system in which ideas, help, little gifts, and friendly words are all forms of currency. And in which the things you have and the things you do without are two kinds of freedom.