Van Gogh stares at us proclaiming his cafe is right over there.
It’s cold and dark. The train just let us off on the farther end of Madrid, and we need get back to the center of the city. Looking for the nearest cafe for Wifi, that’s when we saw it–– a Euro-sized truck with Van Gogh lazily spread across it with his hand pointing in the direction of a coffee shop one block away.
The cafe was not the typical Spanish setup that screams no wifi. This bar had all the trimmings of a modern spot with full internet connection.
But alas, we found ourselves two seats at the bar only to look up at a thoughtful sign with Van Gogh smirking at us: Sorry, we don’t have Wifi. I guess you’ll just have to talk to each other instead.
Damnit.
Van Gogh’s eyes twinkled over his wry smile. Too embarrassed to be American and leave for lack of Wifi, we order a beer. Also, I do my best thinking on alcohol.
At every corner, the late artist’s sardonic wisdom seemed to give us a message shamefully tied to our need for internet. Or possibly I was projecting. In any case, my favorite sign was in a frame hung over the cafe’s community library.
Instead of a cork board filled with local entrepreneurs and promoters splashing their free events and business cards, there was a call to action.
“PLEASE COLLABORATE WITH OUR PANEL OF GOOD NEWS AND POSITIVE THINGS THAT HAPPEN EVERY DAY.”
And collaborate the patrons had, the board was populated with the sweetest collection of random notes sharing happy moments, accidental good news and words of inspiration, like being late to work and meeting someone new, or getting their novel published.
In the harder times of my life, I’ve thought back to that board. I ask myself in these moments of difficulty what I would write on that board if I was standing in front of it right now. And you know what, I never come up short.
Good news is everywhere, we need only collaborate with it.
If you feel compelled, please share something good that happened to you today in the comments below thus spreading some second-hand happy to the author of this blog!
Gratefully yours,
C