To really appreciate this story you have to have read the post “Money Changes Everything.” Go ahead: I’ll wait. Ok, so, where were we. Ah, so it’s Friday evening just after the workshop and the dinner and I needed to go down to the office and let them know about our departure plans on Sunday. It was a beautiful evening, and I felt a certain lightness that led to a burst of spontaneity— I know! How ’bout since I’m down here, and it happens to be the 15-minute window of time that the Valuables Counter is open, and there are only a few people in line, why don’t I just get everything out of there now. The crowds were already starting to grow and I just wanted the whole process to be done with.
“Hello!” I smiled brightly. The stern young girl, whom I’d taken to referring to as German, nodded. “I decided I’d go ahead and pick everything up early.”
“May I have your slip?”
My what? “Um,” I said, fumbling through my little backpack; my belongs had been reduced to such a small selection that there was no clutter to sort through. If there were a slip here, I would see it. “I don’t think I have it anymore.”
“Well I can’t release your valuables without the slip.”
“I think I might have lost it.”
“Well you’ll need to look for it and come back.”
“But what if I can’t find it?” I wondered if this pattern of conversation was sounding as familiar to her as it was to me.
“Why don’t you look for it, and we can see how things stand after that.”
“But you know me. You checked the things in. My passport and my driver’s license are in there. You can match my face to the pictures so you know the right person is getting it.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that. Please have a look and come back tomorrow,” and with that she moved onto the next person.
Gone was the feeling of lightness, of spontaneity. I retraced my steps. If I didn’t have the slip, where was it? It must have been, I decided, in the empty passport case that I returned to my aunt after I’d check everything in. She would have it. I would go back to the room before Evening Prayers and she would have the slip and I would not have to worry about it all weekend. Naturally, worrying and stewing were entirely up to me and not at all in keeping with the Spirit of Taize; what can I say, we mortals get it wrong a lot.
Back in the room we set out on a hunt for the empty passport case which I was now certain had the slip in it; half an hour later, with the room upturned, we could find neither the case nor the slip. A trip to the Lost and Found would now be needed. I would go right after the service. I would close the loop and find peace. And so it was, with my head full of sturm und drang, I entered the sanctuary for prayers.
Heather Choate Davis 