Spinsters Chasing Rainbows--Make your own Luck

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, direct your eyes to the skies.  See that rainbow?  Just beyond that cloud?  No, to your left.  There it is!  And look!  It’s touching down nearby, luring you to gold and good fortune.  At last, luck has shone upon you!  You’re close now.  All it takes is a few more steps, the reach of a hand, a twinkle of the eye, and …

Poof!!!  The gold is gone.  The leprechauns have bamboozled you again.  What’s the use in chasing rainbows if they lead to nothing????

As the Super Spinster, I confess to rainbow chasing.  I’ve seen the rainbow of a relationship or a dream many times, and I’ve followed it.  But too many rainbows have led to nought—no gold coins and no golden relationship.  At times, I am so disheartened by this that I simply give up.  I stop looking at the sky and start looking at my shoes.  One foot in front of the other on a road to I don’t know where and I don’t care.

But then, sometimes, a light flashes by and shoots heavenward.  I gaze up, and there’s another sliver of color across the sky.  Could this this time be different?  Dare I resume the chase?

Alison, me, & the Old Michigan Train Station

Last Sunday in Corktown, Detroit, of all places, I saw my first rainbow in ages.  I attended the Corktown St. Patrick’s Day Parade with my friends Alison and Marie.  We were on a missio to sell green and gold beads to raise money for blood cancer research.  Alison participates in Team in Training, a running group fundraising for Leukemia and Lymphoma research.  Each member has a goal of running a half-marathon or marathon by the summer, and the team hopes to raise $40,000.00 for the American Leukemia Lymphoma Society.  It’s their highest fundraising goal yet, so Alison enlisted me and Marie to help hustle some beads and raise some cash.

Now, hustling people is a joy for me.  I do it for work, and I do it for pleasure.  Perhaps it’s my Irish blood, but I love to talk, and I love a challenge, so convincing people to give me cash for a good cause sounded like fun.  Still, approaching drunken Irishmen and Irish wannabes at a St. Patrick’s Day parade was intimidating.  To start, no one wanted beads.  They wanted booze and other sundry pleasures.  Despite our entreaties that the money was for cancer research, no one was moved.  I grew disheartened again then annoyed then angry.

My anger spiked when the men I approached said they would only buy my beads if I showed them my boobs.  This is St. Patrick’s Day, people, not Mardi Gras!  The worst offenders were those wanting to show me their boobs instead.  “No, thanks!” I cried. “But could you spare a few bucks for people fighting to keep theirs?”

Hustlers for Cancer--Alison and Marie

That did it.  Suddenly, people started buying beads.  No one wants to lose their boobs.  Although we were fundraising for Leukemia and Lymphoma, we told people that, from 2000-2014, 40% of cancer drugs have come from blood cancer research. (www.lls.org/sites/default/files/file_assets/facts.pdf) Those drugs helped many cancer patients, including breast cancer patients.  They could have helped people like my grandma who died from breast cancer almost eight years ago.  If only we had known then what we know now, maybe she could have been with me at that parade.  She would have liked that.

As the money started rolling in, we heard stories from parade goers of their struggles with cancer.  One woman lost her mom to it a few years ago and high-fived us for our work.  Another woman cried as she told us about her young son’s rare cancer and daily fight.  One man handed me $20.00 and told me to keep my beads.  He just wanted to help.  Though he didn’t say anything, I could see it in his eyes.  He had lost someone, too.

After three hours of hustling along the parade route, we had raised $416.25 for Team in Training.  It was something—a step in the right direction for cancer patients, present and future, and for ourselves.

Elated and nearly done with our route, we stopped for a celebratory beer.  On the dance floor, beers in hand and beads around our necks, we were approached by a woman heading a conga line.  A few sheets to the wind, she looked at us covered in beads and said, “Wow!  Where’d you get all those beads?  You must be huge sluts!”  We ROARED with laughter, and so did she when we told her our cause.  She even handed us a few bucks and bought herself some beads, too.  We were “sluts for cancer” together.

"Sluts for Cancer" enjoying a beer break--Me, Alison, & Marie

I learned something about chasing rainbows that day.  If you catch one in the sky, it may not lead to the pot of gold you expect.  For me, at that St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the desire to look up came with that first $1.00.  That kindness inspired me to search for more.  And I found it.  I found it in $416.25 worth of donations, in the stories people shared with us, and in a well-deserved beer break.

Chase the rainbow, my friends.  Luck favors the willing wanderer, and a beer or two along the way won’t hurt.

Cheers, my friends, and best wishes for a safe and joyous St. Patrick’s Day,

Super Spinster

**You can learn more about Team in Training and Alison’s fundraising by clicking on this link: http://pages.teamintraining.org/mi/bayshr17/AMueller