Sprightening Up, with Vinnie & Fred

I. The Birthday Boys 

The saints of the thrift store––the inspiration, Vincent de Paul, and the founder, Frederic Ozanam––these guys, they are not your huggable saints like Saint Francis. 

(Not that the real Francis was exactly huggable, but he's been marketed that way. (He would weep in dismay.) You can buy crocheted amigurumi Francis, like this one.)

You wouldn't make plushies out of the thrift store guys:
Vincent tends to sound grim and duty-bound, 
and Frederic, a professor at the Sorbonne, intellectual and political. (Technically, Frederic is only "blessed", not a saint---is this because his writings sound Communist? or at least Socialist?)

OK, I was wrong.

There are lots and lot of results for a search for "plushie Saint Francis," and only one for "plushie St. Vincent de Paul".

 But there is that one!

 On Etsy, from someone who makes "Saint Softies": felt dolls of Catholic saints. They've even made Thomas Aquinas cute and cuddly.

It was the birthdays on April 24  of Vinnie and on the 23rd of Fred, so I gave them frolicsome birthday hats for the store's Facebook:

I thought this was adorable! but it got hardly any likes.
Do the store's FB friends think the guys are not for joking, or do most of the friends not even know who they are, and they're only there for the thrift? 
I suspect the latter.

II. A Sprightly Deal

I've felt so much more sprightly since I quit the Store Committee--tra la, tra la!
Because guidance from management is usually so lacking, (notwithstanding Big Boss telling me God wants me on the Store Committee––I couldn't take that seriously as store management), I've been free to wriggle around to experiment with where I fit best, how I work best.

(The hands-off style is also what I rail against, you know:
it's why we run out of toilet paper and don't apply for grants. No one is tending to things! But I, personally, benefit from this generally benevolent neglect.)

I think I've found my place. Like Dorothy, it's where it's always been: among the BOOK's, and the people there.

And also in cool old things.
I've started listing on ebay again, after months away.  
Some donations are better suited to be sold online.

For instance, this week we got a copy of The Art of the Deal signed by Trump––it was a premium gift if you subscribed to his 2016 campaign at the $137 level. 

Here, I'll post it SMALL, because I don't want to scare the horses:

I was walking around the store showing it to various coworkers, who were all disgusted by it, and a customer I'd never met called out, "Burn it!" 

So, yeah, I don't think it's going to go in this store. 
Though I did ask one of our regulars, who collects signed books, if he would buy it. (If I notice a book is signed, I set it aside for him. No extra cost, usually.) 
The Trumps sell for $200 and up, but ours has a small rubber stamp from a personal library on the inscription page, so I priced it $98. A deal!

"I don't have a Trump," he said. "I'd give you, um... ten."

I told him if it didn't sell, I'd save it for him.

I have no idea if Trump has good ideas about finding your place in work-life and business, but there is an art to it.
I'm starting to finesse it--better than I used to, anyway.
For instance,  I'm ONLY working on ebay at work. Last year I was taking stuff home to research and photograph it. A bad deal: I started to feel resentful, even though it was only ever my choice.

I always try to follow the advice of St. Benedict:
If you are in a room and cannot maintain your compassion toward the people there, leave the room.

In other words, if you keep tripping on the rug, change the rug or take a different path.