To the Editor:

I wanted to share this small beacon of light for dark times.

On the way home from an annual physical, I spotted this. Turned around and bought a dozen.

It’s refreshing and heartening that in these times there is still enough faith by some in human nature that you can take eggs, and make your own change. I guess the real test will be if it’s there in a month.  

Reminds me of Armstrong’s Dairy in Altamont, back in the day, where the store was almost always unattended. Walk in, get what you want from a decent selection of eggs and milk, check out the prices on the chalkboard, add them up, and put the money in the jar and make your own change.

I remember going there with a cousin from New York City.  He couldn’t believe it.

As I drove home, I must confess to an emotional moment of welling up. With all the hate and viciousness that surrounds us on a daily basis this small inconsequential moment had an out-sized impact. I don’t think that we realize the extent of the unacknowledged and suppressed tension that resides within us, day after day as we see what is going on in our magnificent democratic experiment.

I shared the picture and the responses have been coming in all morning as friends and family have gotten online and read their emails, some on the west coast. I think the welling up is a bit like facing the uncertainty of a close family member who is very ill and it’s 50-50 if they will live or die.

Harvey Vlahos

Altamont