My Uncle's Shoes

They Went Th’Addaway!!

Tom Froehlich

I was biking home. My list was made. The day planned.  And then in a moment, my day was changed by an image I almost allowed to pass by, but was captured in my peripheral vision.

It balanced on a pedestal, it’s mass floating, impossibly defying gravity. A massive iron sculpture, morphing human and manatee. Graceful in the clumsy way manatees can be. Spotted with rust from the salty ocean air.

Gym, sales calls, writing.  That was my day. The day I had planned.

Yet, I found myself leaning my bike against the cyclone fence and walking through the gate into what could have been a junk yard, scattered with lumber and discarded iron from machinery and construction seemingly long past purpose. I heard a voice call from above, “Hey! How are you today?”

Looking up, a man was climbing down from a desert palm, pruning saw in his weathered hand.

“My name is Addaway,” he said, extending his hand.

“I saw your sculptures on the street and just stopped to look.”

“Please do, there are things everywhere,” he said, leading me through a labyrinth of creations filled with sculptures and mammoth abstract paintings and ceramic art. There were wooden altars carved with swirling jungle vines and soaring birds.  Ceramic urns taller than myself inscribed with brightly glazed totemic symbols.  A cluster of architectural sculptures made of brightly painted, spiraling finials, towers, parapets and biomorphic orbs occupied a tabletop.

He shared that these sculptures were actually models for a city he envisioned. I commented on how they were somewhat Dr. Suess-esque, and he responded, “Actually they are Addaway-esuqe,” with a humble grin, holding no arrogance or pride.

Returning his grin I said, “Yes. You’re right. Sorry.” I have no doubt that in his mind he saw people coming and going in this town. Living their lives in this place of whimsy and Addaway-esqueness.  Their lives themselves becoming whimsical as a result.  Whimsy begetting whimsy.

“How incredible you get to do all of these things. Or rather you chose to do all of these things,” I corrected myself.

“It’s more like they chose me.” He said it matter-of-factly as if it there was no other possible reason for him to be on this earth. Just like the tree he had been pruning was here to provide shade.  As simple as that.  It was his purpose. His destiny. Whether or not his art was sold. Whether not it was revered by the masses, he existed to create art.

He had no limits. No fear of creating in a medium perhaps unfamiliar to his weathered hands. No preconceived notions of what his art should be. What he should create. In fact, there were no “shoulds”. He just created. That is why he exists and that is all that matters. Perhaps that was just my imagination and perhaps at that moment even that didn’t matter.  If it was my imagination that is. Everyday reality had no place here. Here on this beautiful Venice morning of otherworldliness.

“Please, come for lunch sometime. Everyday at 11:00.  Muhammad here is a fantastic cook,” he said, motioning to a man walking through the gate, loaded down with groceries. “He makes fantastic Middle Eastern food.”

As I walked out the gate, Addaway was climbing back into the palm tree, pruning shears in hand.  He waved and called out, “Thank you for stopping Tom. Remember lunch is at 11:00,” making a point of calling me by name.

I had interrupted my day. My schedule. My list of “what must happen today things” and found magic. Or maybe it found me.  I learned that not everything that must happen today must actually happen. That some of the most important things that must happen are not even on the list.

“Addaway.”  It reminds me of the old westerns and the line “They went thattaway!”. I’m not sure if this Renaissance man chose a life of creative whimsy or if it chose him.  What I do know, is when it’s time for me to choose, I am going to go “Th’Addaway”.  Who knows? There just may be magic in that direction.  At least that’s what I found the day I accidentally happened into a whimsical garden.  And for me, that is reason enough.