Every Wednesday a wonder descends on Monument Square.
"Our Lady of Victories" was dedicated after the Civil War - I think that was when the Great FIre broke out, but I can't be sure.
The picture of that ceremony is positively iconic - you can see copies of it in coffee shops all up and down the peninsula (though I don't think there is one here in the North Star - every other kind of art, but not that picture).
No, this wonder is the Farmer's Market. I think they pull in about 6:00 or so to set up.
The food is usually picked something like that morning or just the day before. The flowers are fresh and so are the people. There is a wonderful, positive energy about the place - the women tend to be floating like blossoms in all sorts of colors - fleets of children, both on vacation and in summer school, thread the crowd, some with cameras, some with baskets, all completely engaged in the experience of learning and having fun.
For myself, I prefer later in the season - there is a greater choice of food (I've really no use for plants in pots unless it's a stew cooking) and the Brussels Sprouts are in, which is the best reason for the thing in the first place.
A riot of color, it is. It's a gathering place for the town, which is something I'm all in favor of.
Oddly, it puts me in mind of the Zombie Kickball game.
Not so much about the doing the game, but watching the crowd have a good time - seeing them cheerfully buy into all the madness going on. Just like a good band concert or a parade - or Shakespeare in the Park - when you take an audience into account you measure your success in the experience they have - counting missed cues is useful but only part of the measure.
Or, to quote Shakespeare "A jest's prosperity lives in the ear of him who that hears it - never in the tongue of him that makes it". I think that might be why I get in trouble so much - or why people misunderstand what I was trying to do as a teacher.
You know, the other good thing is that the Market repeats itself on Saturday down in the Oaks. Maybe there is a lesson there as well. Either way, I've got some strawberries calling my name back home - I think I should attend them.
