Please Donate Stickers…Just Don’t Make them Too American

I’m escaping the heat this weekend by heading to Rhode Island’s South County, where I will make a rendezvous at 11 am with a friend who has a sailboat. Last night sure convinced me this was a good plan, as I tossed and turned in sweat soaked sheets. An annoying light on my neighbor’s back porch hit me square in the eye since I had lifted up the shades hoping to let in a breeze. I kept thinking he’d turn that off but no.

It seems sometimes during these bad sleeping summer nights that sleep only comes at the very end. I relish those five am to six thirty dreams, that moment when it’s finally cool enough to slumber and those amazingly clear dreams come forth.

Yesterday I dropped off about 300 stickers to a friend who had made a request on Facebook. She said she was going down to Guatemala and wanted stickers for the kids. But she didn’t want them to be too ‘American,” or “too commercial. “No Disney, no Mickey Mouse,” she said. That’s because the children she’s giving them to are Mayan, and there is a fear that it will seem like they are trying to diminish their native culture by forcing America’s stereotypical images on them. “But all kids love Mickey!” I said.

Still I didn’t try to force anything so crass on her, so the stickers I gave her had the logo of a famous little cafe that once sold coffee, bagels, espresso and paninis in South Deerfield. Much preferable than throwing them away, to give GoNOMAD Cafe stickers to a bunch of Mayan kids in Guatemala.