The Entertainer

Oct. 20, 2008

WHERE I AM: In Seattle with my good friend Joanna! But I'm writing about Philadelphia. You'll have to pardon me. I haven't had access to internet for days...Montana's too wild and western for that technology stuff...

WHAT I DID TODAY: Woke up. Ate cereal and yogurt and granola. Joanna and I planned our route to Portland, Oregon. She is traveling with me on this portion of my journey. It will be nice to have company.

WHAT I'M DRINKING: Coffee from Q Cafe, the coffee shop run by Joanna's church in Seattle.

WHERE I'M GOING TOMORROW: Joanna and I will be in Portland, Oregon, exploring Powell's City of Books, eating Voodoo Donuts, smelling the roses.

She's there every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, unkempt hair and toothy smile in sharp contrast to the Mozart, Brahms and Schubert singing from her fingers.

But the hair fit right in with "The Entertainer."

Sophia sways side to side as she plays, seemingly lost in her own music. The people enjoying lunch in Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market sway too. Many walk by and drop a dime or a dollar into her tip jar.

I walk over to ask if I can take her picture. I want to capture this moment, I say.

She smiles up at me: "Hello, dear. Who's your favorite composer?"

"Umm, Mozart?"

Sophia leans over and fingers through a black bag of sheet music.

"Mozart...Mozart...ah, the 'Turkish March.' Do you know that one?"

She doesn't wait for an answer. She just starts to play, and sway and smile.

I snap my photo and place a tip in her jar. I'm about to walk away when Sophia stops me.

"Obama, dear. Are you going to vote for Obama?"

I'm not sure, I explain. I'm still weighing the issues, I've really struggled with this election...my voice trails off.

"Should I?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

Sophia speaks of the war in Iraq, the greed for oil, the corruption.

She pleads with me. Obama is the only one who can help the people in her neighborhood, she says, the people who sleep outside, the people who are cold...her voice trails off.

She turns to her piano and begins to play.

**Disclaimer: I am not telling people how to vote. I have been amazed, however, at how many times politics and the election have come up in conversation, often unprovoked. It is heavy on the minds of the American people.