Five Christmas Tree Sellers Rate the Metaverse
Hello everyone,
Welcome to Issue #9 of CAFÉ ANNE!
Every year, some goofball reporter decides to write a cute feature about the NYC sidewalk Christmas tree business. I’ve written a few myself. But I’ve always wanted to know more about the people selling the trees. In the last issue, I asked you to come up with questions for Christmas tree salespeople. You sent some great ones, and the tree sellers were happy to answer your queries. Please see this issue’s feature, “Five Christmas Tree Sellers Rate the Metaverse,” below.
I got a lot of feedback on The Last Smoker, last issue’s profile of smokers’ rights advocate Audrey Silk. Some people loved her. My brother-in-law canceled his subscription!
Reader John Eggleston wrote:
Anne, I want to have sympathy for Ms Silk but it’s hard. As someone who grew up in a home where both parents smoked I can well remember what it was like when I went away and finally didn’t smell like a cigarette 24/7! She’s fighting a battle I doubt she can win and Sisyphus would have had an easier time with that rock!!! There’s little good that can be said about smoking and that was probably said in the 50’s! Have to tell you, I feel more sorry for the dog in the pic!
In other news, if you want some BIZ ANNE in addition of your CAFÉ ANNE, please check out my feature for Fortune magazine about the startup scene in Buffalo NY—my hometown. Also, my recent Wall Street Journal story about Black developer Don Peebles and his plan to build New York City’s tallest skyscraper.
Finally, I am happy to relate that since launching at the start of October, CAFÉ ANNE is up to 793 subscribers, including 51 paid. I’d love to hit 1000 by the end of the year. If you’re enjoying the newsletter, please share it on your favorite social medias, or forward it to a friend. It would be a big help!
Happy Holidays!
Anne
IN THIS WEEK’S ISSUE…
• Weird Trash Heap #7
• Pet Songs #2: Will, Jasmine and Violet
• Five Christmas Tree Sellers Rate the Metaverse
• Items of Interest
Weird Trash Heap #7
Helen in Ivyland, PA observed the below in an abandoned military complex near her home. Comic books, game pad, crayons, shampoo, toothpaste and a handy canvas tote! Is this the ultimate bug-out bag?
Thanks Helen!
Please send your best sidewalk trash photo to annekadet@yahoo.com and I will include it in a future issue.
PET SONGS
Will, Jasmine and Violet
In the second edition of Pet Songs—a series of videos featuring people singing tunes they’ve invented for their dogs and cats—Will and Jasmine of Gatesville, Texas sing to their shepherd mix, Violet.
Want to be featured on Pet Songs? Write me at annekadet@yahoo.com and we’ll schedule a Zoom recording.
FEATURE
Five Christmas Tree Sellers Rate the Metaverse
You have to be a certain type to sell Christmas trees on the sidewalks of New York City. The typical tree hawker comes from out of town and works thirty 16-hour days in a row, in the cold. And they look forward to it.
I asked readers to send in questions for NYC tree sellers, with one restriction—the queries couldn’t have anything to do with the tree business. Here, five mini-profiles based on what you were most curious to learn. Please enjoy!
JONATHAN GILBERT
Mr. Gilbert, 43, lives in Vermont, where he runs a farm and garden program for a kids’ summer camp and helps a friend with her flower farm and arrangement business.
Metaverse, Yay or Nay?
Oh my god, nay, big time. My colleagues would agree on that. I think real connection happens between people in real time. On the internet, there’s a screen in between and it’s easier for people to hide. Connecting with others in the real world, human relationships—that’s the purpose of life in many ways.
Where’s the best poutine?
Always Quebec. That’s where I’m from. It’s the cheese. You have to have just the right cheese.
When was the last time you realized you believed in love?
I always believed in love. But my relationship to it has changed. There’s all kinds of love. I find the more you learn about life and the wiser you get, there’s more responsibility in carrying the pain of the world. And that’s love. It has a lot to do with sacrifice and being willing to do something for somebody else.
So there’s different layers. There’s pink fluffy love, which is very comforting. But the time in my life where I encountered the hardest place to love was around forgiveness. Forgiveness is one of the hardest kinds of love to do.
What is your life philosophy?
You’re talking to somebody who has studied anthroposophy for a long time.
CAFÉ ANNE: I’m not familiar with that term.
“Anthropo,” meaning the human being, and “sophy” which is wisdom. The wisdom of the human being. It started in 1900, a modern philosophy of a spiritual path. It comes down to what is your relationship to love, and the responsibility we each have as human beings. It’s a human right, the right to responsibility, and we all have to find a way to contribute to the world, no matter what your abilities or disabilities are. To me, that’s the journey as a human being, to figure out what is my path, and the gift I have to bring.
Often people feel depressed or search for meaning in life when they haven’t figured out what they have to offer to others. As soon as you figure what you have to give and contribute, that’s comforting and meaningful.
Favorite book of all time?
The book that changed my life the most is Knowledge of the Higher Worlds by Rudolf Steiner, the guy who brought Anthroposophy about. It’s not an easy book at all. A lot of people can’t handle it. It asks you to learn to observe your own thinking, your own feeling and willingness to act in the world.
What is good quality footwear?
This might be hard in Brooklyn, but barefoot is best!
EAMON WELTER
Mr. Welter is 31 years old and helps run his-family property management company in Vermont. The winter months are slow and he was recruited by a friend to spend the holiday season selling trees in NYC. He’s staying in an Airbnb in Bushwick with five other tree sellers: “It’s something I wanted to do and it’s pretty good pay.” If he gets some time off before Christmas, he’s planning to visit some comedy clubs.
The metaverse, yay or nay?
I don’t even know what that is.
If you were a tree, what tree would you be?
A maple tree. I’m from Vermont.
What’s your footwear recommendation?
Work boots. I’m wearing steel-toed Timberlands. I wear ski socks and liners as well.
Read any good books lately?
I’m cruising through the Dune series right now. I like it a lot. I think it’s super cool.
CAFÉ ANNE: What’s your favorite book of all time?
Probably the Power of One. I can’t remember the author’s name right now. It’s about this kid who grows up on a farm in South Africa. It takes place in the 50s. It’s this kid going on adventures. He starts riding this train. He’s like following this boxer around and working for him and stuff. Check it out!
What is your life philosophy?
Don’t take yourself too seriously.
What are we all on this planet for?
I don’t know.
What is the most important life lesson you’ve learned?
Hmmm. It’s the golden rule. Treat others the way you want to be treated.
CAFÉ ANNE: You can’t go wrong with that.
Yeah, it’s called the Golden Rule!
What do you think life coaches do?
The same thing megachurches do.
CAFÉ ANNE: What’s that?
Collect money.
JUSTIN OTERO
Mr. Otero is 25 and lives in the Bronx. He typically works construction or in cargo at the airport, but he’s been working at the tree stand for family during the holidays since he was nine years old: “I look forward to it. It’s time to spend with my uncle and my dad.”
The Metaverse. Yay or nay?
Yay! Something new. I’m still trying to figure it out. The whole concept of it.
CAFÉ ANNE What do you think it will be like in 10 or 20 years?
It’s unpredictable!
If you were a tree, what tree would you be?
A Frasier Fir. They’re strong. Strong branches. Strong needles.
What are your plans for 2022?
I don’t know. Continue to be healthy, hopefully rich.
CAFÉ ANNE: How are you going to get rich?
I don’t know. Something’s going to hit me soon.
Read any good books lately?
No. I like the audio books. Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
CAFÉ ANNE: What’s your favorite of all time?
Rich Dad Poor Dad. That, and Total Money Makeover.
CAFÉ ANNE: What are your takeaways from those books?
You can’t try get comfortable or rich by doing nothing.
What is your life philosophy?
Let everything come to you as it is. Work your way through it.
What are we all on this planet for?
To challenge ourselves and see what challenges will make us happy.
CAFÉ ANNE: What’s been a recent challenge for you?
I just had a daughter, Luna. She’s ten months. Ten months today!
When was the last time you realized you believed in love?
Yesterday! When I came home and saw my daughter.
WENZDAY JANE
Ms. Jane, 48, sold her Boston-based transportation company two years ago and has been traveling ever since, living in her mini van and taking the occasional carpentry job. This is her first season selling Christmas trees in Manhattan, a gig she got through a friend. It’s more physically demanding than she expected, and she’s not sure whether she’d recommend it: “It depends on how much I get paid. I don't get paid until the end.”
What are your plans for 2022?
Maybe I'll try to get this gig in LA, where it’s warmer. Maybe I'll buy a sailboat and live on it. Sail around in the Gulf of Mexico. I also need to get a job. Like a real job.
CAFÉ ANNE If you had to get a real job, what kind of job would you get?
Well, I guess the rational part of my mind says to get something where I can sit at a desk and not be abusing my body all day. But there's some subconscious part of me, I guess, that likes this—likes the physical work.
Metaverse. Yay or Nay?
As in like, the Mark Zuckerberg thing? No opinion, really. I'm into meta-modern philosophy. It's kind of like this group of thinkers who are trying to spread awareness about the existential crisis that we face as a species right now. The ecological crisis, the mental health crisis, the crisis of crises. So when I saw Facebook changing their name to Meta, like, it's just kind of a buzzword. And I think it's really cringy that they did that.
What is your life philosophy?
I can't summarize it without sounding like a cheesy cliché: follow your heart!
CAFÉ ANNE: What does it mean to follow your heart?
To discern between what you think you should want based on what society says you should want, and what you actually want. Children know, right? But they get that conditioned out of them. It's not proper to want certain things. And so as an adult, we’ve internalized all the authority voices. The next challenge is to strip those away to discover what it actually is that the heart desires.
CAFÉ ANNE: And you believe if you can uncover that, and go after it, that's the best possible action.
Yes, I think I think that's the best possible life.
When I was running my own business, there was a time at the beginning where that was really what I truly wanted. I felt super alive. As I was getting things started, doors were opening. It felt like, “Oh, yes, this is the right path.”
But then after a while, I became enmeshed in the obligations of contracts and employees and legal things. It was a lot of responsibility. It became more of like, I have to continue. I have to get this done. And then I lost the spark. I actually wasn't able to get it back within that business.
I thought, how can I reinvigorate within this? But really what it was is that I didn't want to do it anymore.
There were all kinds of layers of “Well, if I close it, that means I failed.” Or that I should want this—it's great, it’s profitable, I’m making money. But I couldn't deny there was a part of me that was like, “Please just can we do something else?
CAFE ANNE: And you feel alive now?
Yes!
What do you think life coaches do?
I think they actually serve the role of providing something that’s missing in our lives—a connection with wisdom that would have come from a priest, or parents, or grandparents, or even from a friend.
Read any good books lately?
There’s two. Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss. He was an FBI negotiator, a hostage negotiator. It’s about negotiating as if your life depended on it. And it’s interesting, because a lot of it is about empathy.
The other one is Existential Kink. Which you should definitely check out. It’s about taking responsibility for the situations that you're in, in your life. Looking at your life and finding things that you don’t like and realizing that there's a secret kinky part of you that actually likes it.
What is something you wish someone would ask you?
“Would you start a business with me?” Or, “Would you marry me?”
JODY LABONVILLE
Mr. Labonville, 52, works one month of the year, selling Christmas trees in NYC. The surfer and cliff-climber is otherwise traveling the country in his 20-foot RV. This year, he looped from NYC to Baja, California, up to British Columbia, across Canada to the East Coast and back to New York.
Metaverse, nay or yay?
I’m not even sure what that means, the metaverse. Yay or nay? I’m going to go ‘yay’! Why not?
What are your plans for 2022?
To do as little as possible.
Where’s the best poutine?
The best poutine I had here in New York so far is in Union Square—a vendor at the Union Square market. It was fried in duck fat!
What is your life philosophy?
You’re only here once, don’t waste it working.
What are we all on this planet for?
To have as much fun as possible. There’s not many times I’m not having fun, unless I’m working on the RV. I don’t like getting my hands full of grease.
What is good quality footwear?
In my opinion, sandals, because it means you’re somewhere warm.
When was the last time you realized you believed in love?
It wasn’t that long ago, I’d say within the month. It wasn’t an epiphany or anything. Just sitting here, appreciating the person I’m with. My partner. She wasn’t with me, but she was sleeping in the RV behind me. It just made me realize how much I care for her.
What’s your favorite all-time book?
I really enjoyed Siddhartha, from Herman Hesse. That was a great read. If I had to suggest a book to anybody it’d be that. I just love the story. I’m not into the philosophies of cyclical life, but he did a very good job of depicting a young man’s enthusiasm in life, and arrogance, and how he became humble later on. It was really profound.
CAFÉ ANNE: Do you relate to that story?
All men should!
A lot of people dream about doing what you’re doing. Why don’t they do it?
It’s not a dream, it’s a realization. I realized I don’t need to work 40 hours a week, 48-50 weeks a year. I don’t need a house, I don’t need all the amenities.
Having said that, sometimes when it’s 30 degrees, snowing, miserable, I’m stuck in the RV, I don’t have power, my solar system’s down, those days aren’t much fun. And the average person doesn’t like that. The average person likes to go home, turn the heat on, grab a shower if they want one, put the kettle on, make a pot of tea. Sometimes I don’t have that freedom. The sacrifices are severe, but the rewards are even better.
My value system might be different than others. I value my time over monetary investments and things. Money is a means to an end. I live in society. I have to pay taxes, for gasoline and food. I’m not a farmer, so I’m more than happy to support the people who grow the food, pave the roads, run the government. This is all part of living. I’m more than happy to do that—as long as I can maintain my liberties, living in this society doing what I feel is the right thing for me. And that happens to be living a little outside the box.
***
Thank you for your questions: Chris in Yonkers, Aaron in Bed-Stuy, Helen in Beacon, Caitlin in LA, Fleming in NJ, Will in Texas, Will’s mom, and WayAnne in Loma Linda, CA.
ITEMS OF INTEREST
The MTA’s official guide to the Pantone colors of NYC subway stations
A great podcast on the history of airline safety card design
Yankee Candle’s Stages of Abstraction
I love the way you look at the world. Here is a Q for you & readers. Why do people have such conflicted relationship with deer? In November it's all Men In Orange, Hunting Deer. In December Men put light up deer forms in their yards. One month they're killing them, the next month deer become icons of holiday season. It's too confusing.
The Christmas Tree Seller interviews are great! You ask excellent questions (though I'm among those who don't know what metaverse means). Thanks so much for sharing these ordinary moments in such an extraordinary way.