So What if it Gets Hot?

I like hot weather, so I'm not worried about this latest heat wave. For sure I will open my house early in the morning and close it by 8:00, and probably not do any gardening in the middle of the day...but if I stay in the shade, I don't mind being out. Of course I will go to Saturday Market! I am lucky to have a spot that is usually breezy, and I bring two umbrellas and can generally keep shade over most of my customers and myself. I get a lot of people who stop just to enjoy my cool space, and I even bring an extra chair if someone needs to sit on the grass under the trees for awhile.

Not everyone is as lucky as I am, of course. Some people really suffer, and I feel for them. I worry about the market, though. Lots of vendors stay away, thinking there won't be customers, but don't we show up for other reasons besides customers? There are so many: catching up on the lives of neighbors, seeing cute kids shake the shakers, hearing great buskers work their little crowds, and taking home the excellent peaches and eggplants we've been seeing the last few weeks. I would be so bored if I stayed home in the cool house all day. I'm not even tempted to skip.

And after so many decades, that in itself is a wondrous thing to me. To still see each Saturday as one new and different from any that came before, to still find delight and desire, those things amaze me. I can find you three new things in any given booth in my neighborhood, and now seems to be a great time for it. I made new hats last week, and every jeweler made new earrings for me to buy. Here's a photo of things I bought in just the last few months at the Market. (Okay, I got one at OCF and have had a few of them since Holiday Market...but they are all handmade by people I talked to...who made them with their own two hands.)

I love supporting my fellow members. It makes me tear up just thinking about how sweet the interactions can be when we really notice and support each others work. Our creative work means so much to us, and when we get the approval of people we admire as well, it feels great all around. The direct connection of our hearts and souls through our work is so rich. That's why people like to shop at our Market too. It's not the stuff, it's the connection we get with it. We buy the fingerprints of the artist, we glimpse their creative process, and we are granted a tiny piece of their souls. That is simply not available everywhere; practically not anywhere, in fact.

When I go into a chain store or a mall, I see people whose eyes are dead and whose faces are empty. I see people look through the cheap, silly-looking clothing despairing how to make it look good on their real bodies. They have to strive for fake bodies to fit the fake goods. I want no part of it. I don't even want to get things at the thrift stores, things that have been tossed away, sometimes not even worn out at all. It's so obvious that too many cheap goods are made just to be used slightly and then discarded. There's so little soul in them it's painful. That isn't what you see at Saturday Market.

You see a person who has been a potter for 28 years who is now doing paintings of birds. He's a bit hesitant about it, but I had to have this one, which had a bit of effortless genius in it, the way he sketched just a bit of branch and didn't put it right in the middle.It's on a beautiful piece of slate that was rescued...I like that it has a chip out of the side.

 That tie-dye in the photo is one of Maggie's. I don't buy a lot of clothing, but I need a few of Maggie's before she moves. She'll still sell online, but I like handing her the cash. I like to refuse when people offer me discounts. I like to pay extra when people don't charge enough. It's fun to give to these people I love, the ones I spend all my Saturdays with. It's my life to be part of this smaller community in a greater, loving community. Market is what makes me love living here, and it is what makes it possible for me to live.

It was too bad the Market wasn't full when the consultants from NYC were there last week. They missed a lot, and when they walked around on their lunch breaks, they didn't seem like they enjoyed us that much; they were at work. They said we were the best thing downtown Eugene had going, and they wished we could do that every day. Ironic, because of course if we did it every day, it wouldn't be what it is. It might even get to be ordinary. We told them everything we could think of about how we used the space, but it was only a small slice of it.

Consultants, what do they know? They come with a set of assumptions and probably aren't changed as much as they hope to create change. With Market, it's not broken, so it was hard to feel their energy about fixing things. They say they just want to help downtown users improve downtown so more can love it, but what do they want to change? Don't they want to remove some of the color that makes our rainbow? Don't they find a few things they'd like to do without, like maybe the scruffy parts, or the way people sit on the lawn when they should probably be on chairs? What is their vision, and how much will they try to impose it on what we have built? How much will the city listen? I saw the Chief of Police at the Market for the first time in my years, not to say he hasn't come before, but I don't see many of the other people who work in and for the city...do they know me? Do they get me, and what I need?

Of course I am wary of these "improvements." I know that selling in the winter won't work for me...I treasure that three months off when I get to do my other creative work. I know selling indoors would kill my soul if I had to look out on a sunny day with no one in it. Even Holiday Market is a bit hard when we're all in a building much too close to each other. The breeze, the clouds, and even the rain are part of us. Those trees in the Park Blocks...will they cut them down to make a playground? What will the City do with our beloved space? Would they ever think we could move into a parking lot again? Could they make us want that?

I'm not one for shiny plastic crap wrapped up as new and better. I'm extremely wary of improving our space for municipal purposes. I'm totally not enamored with losing the tight connection I have with my farmer friends right across the street. I love that I can hop over for my tomatoes and a chat. I don't want to go to Whole Foods for them, especially if they got there in a truck from some big farm owned by some corporation instead of my friend Rich. I'm not really excited about these new developments being sold in our town right now.

So I'm watching and listening and reading what they say. I'm translating these things into real words and real commitments. I know how it has worked for the last 41 years downtown, so when I hear about these improvements, I'm hearing the subtext too. Do they really want to help me thrive, or is someone trying to make some money off my hard work? Are these improvements to make my life easier, like a smoother surface on the concrete where everyone's hand trucks throw off their stack of boxes, or will I find a play structure or a bench on my spot when I show up in the spring? Am I being pushed aside for someone to make money, or for some theoretical person who may come down occasionally to look at the fountain and walk away? I'm working there. I need a few things, but I don't need an overhaul. Saturday Market isn't broken at all. We're having our best season ever. Let's be careful with that. Let's protect and preserve that. Let's pay attention and speak up and make sure none of these new great ideas break our treasures.