Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1469343
8 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JUNE 2022 Nolan's Notes by Nolan Johnson, I-CONNECT007 What's the Point of Collaborating? When I was a kid, we had a recluse who lived just down the street from us. I'm talking the movie stereotype of a recluse. You had to be up past your bedtime to catch him coming or going; he never ventured out during regular people hours. All the curtains were closed all the time, the lawn had long since reverted to a field of native species. Every anksgiving, just as we were ready to serve it up to the family, my mom would make up a plate ahead of everyone else. She'd dish up a healthy serving of every- thing, with plenty of gravy and two dinner rolls, and wrap it up with tin foil. en, with- out a word, she'd hand it to me. While everyone started passing the feast around the table, I'd pop down the street, and knock on the recluse's door, carefully set the plate down on the stoop, knock again, and step back 10 feet. Only then would he open the door—just a crack—and say, "ank you!" I'd wish him a happy anksgiv- ing and sprint home to catch up with our meal. I'd be sliding into my seat before the food was done being passed around. e next morning, mom's plate would be resting on the recluse's stoop, cleaned, and waiting for pick-up. at's the kind of giving I'm talking about.