I’ve been on the hunt for joy lately. I’ll take any I can find right now.
With so many in our city and nation sick and suffering and struggling and sad, joy has seemed in far too short supply, even in what’s supposed to be the season for it.
So I was grateful for the chance this week to soak up the spirit of Steven Traylor, who, against all odds, finds his own joy and spreads it.
Each day, three times a day, Traylor puts on a Santa hat, grabs a tambourine and sets off from his apartment. Always eclectically dressed, maybe wearing a powder blue linen suit and a big beaded necklace and a long yellow scarf that flutters in the wind, he pulls a cart that holds a giant speaker with lights that flash red, green and blue. And as he blasts gospel and love songs and rap, this tall, skinny man prances and dances, skips and hops, twirls and struts in improbable moves that often seem entirely his own.