Been there.. done that. Austin 1992-3, weathering the storm. My Native American President art exhibit had moved from the Whole Foods restarurant (pre-corporate whole foods), to the "Top of the Mark" where the texas legislature lunched... W, Anne Richards, the whole she-bang saw the stuff. I'd rapped out my art statemnt to them one night, with the house blues band backing... leather jacket coutesy of Larry... a painting trade. So...weeks alter, I was house sitting for a friend of a friend. I felt so grateful to be indoors.. to be able to do my prayer - baths... so grateful to Diana, who I'd hardly known. and to her dog Mona... a healing dog. Everytime I looked out the window at the back yard, while she was gone, I saw the leaves... and those leaves kept urging me to rake... starting with the utility shed roof. So.. the day came when I got the rake out. With the first tug, I found syringes... used syringes from previous tenants of the house. I was so grateful that I'd felt the impulse to wear my heavy welders gloves... I was seeing dis-ease in those needles and I understood why the leaves had been calling. So, I called th enewspapaer and passed the warning to the people. I didn't want to publicity... but I knew the point had to be gotten to the folks all round there... wear gloves... dispose of used needles properly. It's all here.. read it. I'd already convinced the local Hispanic gang members that diana was not someone they needed to target. they wondered who she was... they thought she was there to get them. I filled them in, while she was gone, before discovering these needles. I told them Diana was (really was) working for the Criminal justice system trying to save folks on death row. Calling out ofr the forgotten. But she wasn't targetting the neighborhood gangs. You may wonder, as I do now, how I culd have told those folksthose things late one night with a 45 pointed at me. They also wondered about me... but soon understood that I saw no crimes.. and I had no grudges against mexicans.. but, yes, I was afraid in that neighborhood for awhile... until I realized my heart could see humans in a struggle similar to my own. When Diana came back, seeing this article in th epaper shifted her opinion of me a little, but we still couldn't talk heart to heart... I didn't expect anythign more than that.. she a beautiful young woman, owed me no friendship. I 'd cared for her dog. Her dog had cared for me. Equal exchange. I was ready fo go. So, I got in my car.. had said my good-byes and thank you's. The medicine of the Female Buffalo Skull in my back seat called out to stay there.. so I put the car back into park and shut it off and knocked on Diana's door again and handed her that gift. I said, "I think this is for you"... she said, "where did you get this?" and I told her... then she said, "come in.. we have to talk". then I heard the story of Diana, 4 years earlier, at the same reservation where one of my mentors lives... and how she had gathered 6 buffalo skulls for the Sun Dance... and had given the last one (hers) to a dancer... yeah. And I have the knowledge, after that conversation that I played a part in making sure the one meant for her showed up. No lie. All real all true just like me... just like you.