There is a cliché that if you let someone go and they come back then it was meant to be. Well, Sarah and I were never involved. This story is a triumph of a free shirt over adversity. To be shot like a banana peel into oblivion and to come back is the story that has to be told and made into a major motion picture that audiences will lap up like the non-demanding curs that they are.

One day Sarah and I were working on the route. I forget the specifics, but I believe that she was sorting through a box of stuff and came upon the shirt. She alerted me to a free shirt that said "I am special." I always get giddy when I hear about free shirts so I went to the back to see what the deal was about this shirt. The deal was that puffy paint was all over it. Apparently, quite a few people were special. After deliberating for a few minutes I decided to let the shirt go because I did not feel that I would have cared enough to get rid of all of the puffy paint and also for the fact that I was still a bit too large to wear the shirt seriously.

Ever the conservationalist, Sarah took the shirt back to the cage so that it could be used by other children at the re: create wall at the Festival of the Arts. The wall was in part formed by me, but mostly by Jim, Dan, and some other kid I don't know. The wall was built to be painted on by children. The wall was good. The paint was donated by local merchants. The children by all accounts had a good time.

A month later, Sarah informs me that after washing the shirt almost all of the puffy paint came right off. The shirt survived. I went to work a couple of days later and picked the shirt up. "Nicole" in puffy paint was still present but no complaints at all are levied. It is not very often, although it does occur, that I know for a fact that the used free shirt is washed prior to my acquirement.

The National Youth Sports Program, from what I can tell, is a program designed to give disadvantaged kids something to do while at the same time teaching them the lessons that sports have to offer. Seems noble enough, if not that particularly necessary. Sports tend to overvalue competition at the expense of cooperation. The pluralist in me knows that advantages come from cooperation but also realizes the competition provides motivation. In any event, sports probably do keep the children interested whereas something like a book club only gets a certain audience.