But enough about Rome. Not really. I’ll get back to it, for sure. I just got an important e-bulletin, though, from Ten Thousand Villages, a major resource for Enlightened Shoppers. Every single thing you purchase there helps take the global standard of living up a notch.
This latest e-bulletin featured Haitian handicrafts – graceful sculpted figures made from local river stone, and heart-lifting metal wallhangings (“Tree of Life,” “Creole Garden”) and objects (turtles, birds, musicians, dancers!) made from oil drums that have been pounded, hand-cut and sometimes painted – that are really works of art.
Some of them are presently on sale. But aesthetically speaking, they’re always a bargain.
Upon reading the e-mail I felt like running right downtown to our local Ten Thousand Villages and snapping up one of those turtles. Or at least taking some pictures. But unfortunately, we’re pretty snowed-in here. Eight more inches arrived last night.
So for the moment, here’s a detail of a Haitian painting I bought years and years ago in Port au Prince.
It’s not for sale, of course, but it does a really good job of conveying the SPIRIT of what is, at http://www.tenthousandvillages.com (search for “Comite Artisinal Haitien”).