If you have been reading this column very long, you know the art of writing is what entertains me most in this world.
And what entertains me second most is writing as art.
What you may not know is that I am the person who makes and hand-writes an awful lot of the signs you see hanging around on lampposts in downtown Greenfield — primarily the sponsor names for the stars on the holiday posts, the patrons’ names on the lamppost bees at the summertime Bee Festival, and now we have a new event that I just finished making a stack of lamppost signs for, Hearts of Kindness. The new event debuted a few weeks ago and is scheduled to stay up through the month of March.
Just so you know every single thing about me, I am also the person who designed and implemented Greenfield’s downtown holiday decorations from about 2008 to 2020, with the shooting stars that rose above the lampposts, which had nothing at all to do with writing beyond the sponsors’ names on the stars, but much to do with art and decoration, my other joyful job in life.
I just told you about that so you could say, “Wow! I loved those non-traditional decorations!” or “Lord Heaven! So glad we finally went back to something more New England-looking for our holiday look — dang people from away, thinking they can come here and just design something crazy!” Both reactions are completely legitimate, and no offense would be taken if you thought the latter. While I’m certainly still From Away after only 17 years of life in New England, I’ve lived here long enough to look around at Ashfield, shake my head and say, “Yup! It ain’t like it used to be back in the good old days!” (All previous days to this one, I understand, were the good ones for just about everyone in life, regardless of where one lives.)
The Hearts of Kindness idea came from the Planning Committee at the Greenfield Business Association. While one function of all these signs swarming about the posts is to help raise money for good local causes and the wellness of bees, the more specific idea for these hearts came from the desire to give us happy, encouraging and hopeful stuff to think about for a change, in these seemingly never-ending Days of the Weird.
While the pulse of these hearts has much more to do with inspiration and kindness than with Valentine’s Day love, Isaac Mass requested, “Marry Me!” which may have to do with romantic engagement, or might have to do with a movie at his Garden Cinemas. Two of the quotes had writer bell hooks as their creator, which led me to studying and listening to her and what she had to say. Bell hooks knew some stuff.
I believe my personal favorite was Temple Israel’s “Love Your Neighbors As Yourself — No Exceptions!” as it’s the hardest to do consistently, but certainly brings mountainous rewards.
Being the hand-writer of the thoughts on hearts, I had requested a word limit of 16 words per quote so that they would be legible from the street, and while most stayed within that, some heart-requesters had so much joy spilling from their own hearts that they went long in their word counts. I wrote it all down just as requested and hope those particular quotes will speak especially profoundly to you as you pause to look up and read them.
Of all the sign writing jobs I have around here — oh! I write the signs for the Green River Festival, coming to you this year in June, so get your tickets now — I think the Hearts of Kindness hugs my own personal heart the most securely, as indeed, what the world needs now is love, oh, so very sweet love. And kindness. And joy, and hope for our future. And, communication.
It gives me tremendous joy and entertainment to read and respond to the emails y’all send me monthly after this column comes out. I love the art that my writing brings out in you, too.
So now you know it all. I write the signs, I ruined the decorations and I love communicating with you every month through this column. My 18-year-old goddaughter asked me yesterday what I think the most helpful things to get us through life are, and after a bit of thought, I told her I think they are community, real and personal communion with others, and some sort of spiritual connection to a larger presence. I may have gathered that wisdom from some hearts I wrote on recently.
Nan Parati lives and works in Ashfield, where she found home and community following Hurricane Katrina. She can be reached at NanParati@aol.com.