Character #5

Michelle Sawyer: Church Organist



To Whom it May Concern:

My name is Mrs. Michelle Sawyer and I am a visitor to your fair city. I am an old woman and I do not have the time left to me to beat around the bush. I believe in straight words and putting all my cards on the table. Don’t be offended by my manor, but do not put me off as a crackpot because of my age. I am merely older than you, not simpler or stupid. I have seen a lot in my time and it has helped me to develop very well informed opinions on a variety of different subjects. Just because I am a woman does not mean that I have not spent many years exercising my brain. I am writing to you not because of desperation, but from a sense of entitlement. As a consumer, I believe that my words and experience should be seen and heard at the highest levels. I am not sure just what the level is at a Market of this sort and will trust that it will get into the right hands. Hands that will be able to do something about an issue that is dear to my heart. Now that we know where we all stand, I think it is time to come to the point.

I am on holiday. Not just any holiday, but my yearly holiday. As you are probably not aware I work for a little church just outside of Agion. Now in a town of this size you might not understand what that means, but if you have had the good fortune and high breeding to have come from a smaller town you will realize that we are not strangers. Here in this city I doubt that you know more than two or three of the people that you hob knob with on a daily basis. Oh you’re polite and you smile and all of that, but when things get down to brass tacks you really do not know the people around you. That is all different where I come from. We don’t know everyone to be sure. But you know your neighborhood and you know the children who have grown up and moved across town. You know the grocer and the baker and the lovely lady you buy your wool from (Evelyn’s daughter even went to school back East. Really fancy one too. We expect her to be awarded a degree very shortly). You live life differently when you know the people that you do business with. There is more than just the hoped for ideals of honesty, but a real honesty right there to touch. How do you cheat someone you see every day? Whose children lived and played in your backyard? Someone you sit next to at the church social and get BBQ with on the weekends? The answer is that you don’t. You deal with them honestly because you know them. And they do the same. In my opinion there would be a lot fewer problem in the world if we would all just get together and get to know one another.

But that is not to say that a big city doesn’t have its attractions. The arts, my dear person, the arts. That is why we chose this city. The galleries and the opportunities to see live theatre. It draws us. As the organist and secretary of the Ladies Brunch Society, it is my duty to help to expand the minds of those around me. What better tool could there be but a slideshow of my trip upon my return? Think of all the people that I could help. I know that Mrs. Toberman loves the Renaissance but poor Mrs. Jaskel doesn’t know a Rembrandt from a Picasso. Not that you should be surprised. You wouldn’t know this, but she did marry quite a bit below herself. Oh, we’re not stuck up on things like bloodlines or society, please don’t think that, but it is important to marry someone that you really understand and that understands you. A meeting of the minds as much as a meeting of the hearts. While in the throws of passion and romance it is easy to imagine yourself with someone, but what do you do ten years down the road with three children playing at your feet? Do you really like the person that you are stuck seeing day after day? Do you respect them? Or are you stuck just thinking of way in which they disappoint you? I am afraid that I knew Mrs. Jaskel when she was just little Alice Abley. She truly did love the arts. Her dream was to go to Paris and stand in the Louvre. But I don’t think she really understood anything about it. It was just a name that she had heard us bandy about. Like children who play at having more wisdom than they really do. I once heard Tommy Bruttle give a lecture to his friends on the birds and the bees that would have had them going in all the wrong directions if they had ever really listened to him. That just comes from sneaking peeks at your Father’s gentleman’s magazines but not reading any of the words. Alice was like that. Looking at a picture over our shoulders and dreaming of a city of lights. Just think of how she will appreciate seeing real art instead of those terrible magazines her husband buys her at the drugstore. He might as well give her flowers.

It has in a way become a holy mission of mine. Surely it is important to do the Lord’s work whenever we can. And part of that is each and every one of us taking the time to find a place in this world in which we can make a difference and then taking the steps to make that difference. I believe my part is to bring culture to the uncultured. I have been given no charter from Heaven and heard no voices from the bushes I have seen burning. Especially since I think it was Tommy who lit them. It was certainly not the Lord. I do not think that He resorts to sulfur matches. But it is very clear to me what it is that I am to do with my life. When I look around myself at all the ladies that need a little bit of sunshine and light in their lives. When I see the faces light up at the sounds of the pianoforte like they did when I managed to get Susan Duor to play for the Victoria’s Bruncheon in ’87. I just know that this is what I am sent here to do. What better way to do this than to visit your beloved city?

What a surprise there was awaiting me. Why the people here might as well live in New York City. What is it that they are all doing in such a hurry? They certainly can’t all have such terribly important business to take care of. I went on this fancy elevated train of yours and almost lost my life. Truly. I was in fear of myself. I tried to ride the escalator and seven people pushed past me. Seven. Isn’t it enough that we are riding to the top without having to walk? Isn’t it fast enough? And it wasn’t like they were rushing to catch a train either. We waited for a good five minutes before one showed up. And the nice security man who I discussed it with assured me that a train came by every five or six minutes. So why were they rushing? To get a favorite spot on the train? To impress us all with how important they were? It was just rude. Take a bit of advice from me. If you take this train make sure to take your time. There is always another train.

I am afraid that you might be getting the wrong idea. I am sure that you are reading these short words and wondering what it is that I will find wrong with you. Rest assured you are safe. After all, since I do not know who it is who may actually read this and assist future patrons of your establishment I have no way of commenting on your nature and personal habits. It is even less likely that we know each other in any way. And we all know that it is by close proximity and conduct that we gain that deeper knowledge necessary to guide and advise one another on the subtle points of behavior that some of us lack. In such a brief note as this I have no way of conveying between us the bosom friendship and blessed assurance of loving tolerance that is necessary for friends to truly appreciate a guiding hand.

My goal throughout this entire venture was to visit such areas of culture and opportunity that are available in your city. To visit and to document them. To take a log of pictures and to write in a diary about each of the objects that caught my fancy and made it into my valuable collection of photographic memories. Before I had the opportunity to visit your facility I had the chance to see a concert of flutes given by some lovely young people. I got to walk through all the stores that border your library, although why there were so many places to purchase refreshment when you are not allowed to take any inside is a wonder to me. I also got to go and walk on some suspension bridges up in very tall trees. Next on my list was your Market. You may wonder why your Market was on this list. Rest assured that your reputation has travelled even so far as Agion. My sister’s friend’s cousin’s gardener had grown up around here and remembered your Market well. Many a time a recollection from this place has made its way to the table at the Scott’s. Since I would be in the area anyway, I felt that I could make it a treat for this man to have some fresh looks and remembrances to mull over on a long night. Since I could not arrange to have him come with me – what would people say to have a woman travelling with a man not her husband? Really, I just couldn’t have it. The next best thing was obviously to record it for my journal and share it with him upon my return. Not just him, but all those of us who have heard him speak of the Market with such nice terms.

My plan was to spend the morning strolling through your shops, have some tea, and then catch a boat over to the city and meet my good friend Margaret. You may not know her, but she works in the offices of the symphony and knows some truly lovely people. Though I suppose that if you do not know her that is a bit of a tease. If that is the case, take heart. I have heard it said that she knows all of the best people and if this letter is in your hands then you are at least a person capable of action and results. That is the first step towards greatness and we all know that bestness is next to greatness along life’s journey. When you reach it, you are bound to make her acquaintance and I defy you to dislike her. In fact, I know that you will get along famously. But will you act? Will you step up and take these few words to heart? I must hope and pray that you will. And if for some reason you cannot, then I can only point out that this letter was obviously delivered to you by mistake. Take the time to read it, but only so that you have better knowledge to direct the postal service to the right individual. I trust that you will.

I used the public transportation that was available at such a time in the morning and found myself among the first to wander through your gates and towards the delights that your advertising has led patrons to expect. But my hopes were dashed. We were let through the gates but not into the facility. Now I have heard of a lot of things in my time, but this is one of the worst. When you wish to run a successful business, it is imperative to get your times correct. I know that it is an affectation of the youth of today to not have a pocket watch. They seem to revel in the loose conduct that is allowed when one rejects the status quo and mocks the keeping of appointments. The appointment is more than a thing. It is the sacred duty of all business owners to respect, even to the loss of their own health. It is incumbent upon us all to embrace punctuality and all its blessings. In future I will hope that you will do so. Many travellers create a plan. This plan is an itinerary as important and sanctified as those put about by the trolley companies. We wish to get all we can out of life and only by following the times in our tables can we ever hope to manage just that. When a business announces that it will open its doors at eight in the morning, then that is exactly what it should do instead of leaving them standing outside to get colder and more irritated with you than they should be. In fact, we should be happy that you have opened your doors on time to let us in. This is a violation of the basic agreement that patron and host agree to. You open for business and we will supply that business. Open late and we want to take our business elsewhere. Why give you money when you squander it and are unable to even procure that most basic of necessities: time.

I know what you are going to say. That it was not your fault. That you found out too late to do anything about it. But let me say this. You set the policies for your employees. If they don’t like to help out, then remove them from your Market and let them find work elsewhere. I believe in open markets but only when they open on time with everything prepared for the customers who like your products so much they return again and again to assist you in improving yourself through profits. But when your staff fails, then you fail. There was talk of power issues, but that is just an excuse. Another chance to pass the buck instead of thinking for themselves. You may not have been there to fail to open the doors, but your men are in the military. They should be doing more than just standing there in pretty uniforms looking handsome. They should be helping all they can so the retailers can do better business. They should be following orders. Your orders. So the responsibility comes down to you.

I hope that I have explained things well enough for you to understand them. I was rushed in writing this letter and hope that in the end you will take what short lessons it has in it to heart. Open your doors on time and enable your patrons to retain their schedules. In my case everything worked out and I was able to see a gorgeous collection of porcelain dishes. I am quite intrigued and may need to take a visit to their anthropolitical department and see what treasures can be gleaned there. Margaret quite outdid herself and you should question her on the possibility of you getting your chance at a viewing if you should ever earn her friendship.

I thank you for taking the time to read this.

Yours,

Michelle Sawyer