A Gift of Silver

I received an unusual gift this week.  I had accompanied my partner to a conference where he was selling the beautiful stringed instruments that he makes.  I had brought one of my beading projects to work on at the booth and was happily sitting with the sun at my back sewing tiny seed beads onto felt, three at a time.  A thin man, probably in his late fifties approached the booth and began to look at the instruments.  He struck up a conversation and I joined in, although I can’t remember what we talked about now.  He seemed happy just to talk to someone and he made eye contact from behind his horn rimmed glasses the whole time.  He seemed to be quite happy to be in the moment and so was I.

.

After about ten minutes of conversation, he reached into his pocket and brought out a zip lock bag with coins in it.  “I’m going to give you a good luck charm,” he said as he reached into the bag.  He pulled out two coins, one for myself and one for my partner and handed them to me.  They were silver coloured and a bit bigger and heavier than a Canadian toonie.  The man beamed with pride as he handed them to me.  Looking down, I saw the words Half Dollar and US on it.  There was a picture of a building on the coin. I felt immediately repelled at this US currency due to the past two years of American politics.  But the man was still beaming.  Flipping the coin to the other side I saw the upside down head of a man.  I righted the image and there was the profile of John F. Kennedy.  Underneath his head I read 1776 – 1976.  “It’s the bicentennial half dollar,” exclaimed the man.

He began to tell me all about the coin.  After the assassination of JFK in 1963, the US had minted a commemorative coin with the image of the president on it.  It was brought back again to celebrate the bicentennial of that country in 1976.  “I’ll bring you a fact sheet,” he continued.  “But I have to get it photocopied first so I can give one to every person I give a coin to.”  And off he went to do just that.

I looked at the coin more closely.  It had the words Liberty, 200 Years of Freedom, In God We Trust and E Pluribus Unum which I later discovered was the early motto of the United States meaning “Out of Many, One”.  I was to learn much more once the man returned with the fact sheet.  “Read it,”  he said before he continued on his distribution round.  I had lots of time so I read the sheet, wondering all the while why this coin was so important to the man.  I learned about the history of the coin and the specifics of its composition and weight, but I couldn’t see the significance.  So, when the man returned for the third time, I asked him why this coin was so important for him.  “I collect coins,” he said.  “And whenever these bicentennial coins come up, I buy them and give them away.”  My brain moved in slow motion trying to grasp this man’s reality.  He loved coins, found them fascinating and special.  And he was sharing something he loved with strangers that he met.  This was just the way he was in the world.

I later found out that this man’s brother had always come to these conferences and had loved the community that he experienced at them.  The brother had recently passed away and so this man had come to the conference to experience the community that his brother loved.  And he brought coins as gifts to people in that community as good luck charms. 

I had to look past American politics to see into the heart of this gift.  This was a gift of a brother to a community that his deceased brother had loved.  That original American motto, Out of Many, One seemed to describe this very community.  I had to look past the symbol of money that can cause so much trouble and see the good wishes with which this man had imbued the silver.  

This gift of silver challenged the stereotypes and prejudices that were within me.  The gift challenged me to see the man not as an American stranger, but as a brother who was grieving and as a fellow human who was sharing love by generously sharing what he loved with people he had just met.  The coin did not feel like something that I wanted.  And yet it was a gift and so I accepted it with as much gratitude as I could muster.

I have been pondering this unusual gift for days now wondering what the actual gift is.  I will keep the coin as a reminder to look past differences and see the heart of each person.  It may very well be that this silver good luck charm will indeed make me feel lucky to get to know people whom I might otherwise ignore and to be part of communities that make space for the many.