Is it possible?

Photo by Dominik Scythe on Unsplash

In pre-vaccine, 2020, a neighbor suffered a family loss and decided to channel her sadness into being an elf. (Yes, you read that correctly.) Small presents began appearing at the homes of nearby neighbors, signed “From an Elf”. No one knew who the elf was but everybody was diverted from pervasive pandemic sadness to, you got it, delight (but with a capital D.)

The next holiday season, following the Year of the Elf, our country continued to be riddled with pandemic unknowns. I began to experience an inner ELF emerging. Not wishing to purloin the already-taken neighborhood “Elf” nomenclature, “Rudolph and the Reindeer Gang” was born. However, I had absolutely no idea what Rudolph and the Reindeer Gang could give as anonymous gifts (to LOTS of neighbors.) None whatsoever….

Stick with me. I’m taking a detour. Rudolph and the Reindeer Gang will be right back…

I’m quite a few years out of high school. Over those “quite a few years,” a classmate built and maintained a Facebook page for our high school graduating class of 500+, becoming the glue for all of us. Multiple reunions, how to find a lost classmate, the sharing of obituaries, and keeping politics off this nostalgic page.

Oh, wait, did I forget to mention that my classmate and I are on completely opposite ends of the political spectrum? She likely avoids a measure of my Facebook posts as I do with some of hers. Nonetheless, I’ve developed a deep respect for her many-years service of holding our class together. She also enjoys my “This Being Human Thing” stories on SubStack (and, of course, I respect her great taste!)

Finally, returning to Rudolph and the Reindeer Gang. I’d shared the previous year’s neighborhood elf story on Facebook. I also disclosed a desire to pick up the anonymous gift baton during the still pandemic-impacted, 2021, holiday season. But, geez, I had absolutely no idea what type of small (and cheap!) gifts could easily be left in mailboxes. I posted a Facebook all-hands-on-deck shoutout, sharing my gift quandary.

Wunderbar, my high school friend, of the different political stripes, just hit the ball out of the park with a sterling suggestion! Lottery tickets!

North Carolina lottery proceeds benefit state education, so I decided to support our kids and bolster my “gotta keep it cheap” gift ethos, at the same time. The ticket purchases of beaucoup scratch-off lottery tickets began. (The employees of the gas station where I purchased the tickets, began to smilingly say, “Sheeee’s back!“each time I returned for more.)

I had a ball practicing my skulking skills, at dusk, leaving lottery tickets, from Rudolph and the Reindeer Gang, in mailboxes. (Only one neighbor caught me. He didn’t buy my explanation that I was a Girl Scout selling thin mint chocolate cookies, extraordinarily, early that year.)

Soon, our neighborhood listserv lit up with the joy of being touched by unexpected caring, as Covid persisted. And me? I danced an internal, joyful, jig that human connections, of a purple hue, can be forged in a nation often divided by red and blue. Thanks, Gayle!