The Manta from Caxias, Brazil

A little over 40 years ago, while a missionary in Caxias, Brazil, I purchased a manta from the Sehbe factory. A manta is a large scarf or shawl to drape around your neck in cold weather. This particular manta is a large brown, wool shawl with fringes on the ends.

I still use it on those cold winter mornings when I go to work and it provides both physical warmth and a certain warmth of satisfaction stemming from chill winter evenings in Caxias. They had a wonderful praca (park) there in the center of town with a fountain, trees and shrubs and walkways. The "old men with beautiful manners," as Ezra Pound would have described them, strolled thoughtfully in the chilled evenings, their brown, wool mantas draped upon their shoulders; sometimes in solitary reverie, sometimes in quiet conversation.

I'm approaching that strolling age however my walks into work after getting off the bus a mile away from the COB are still quite brisk. The days of strolling are coming soon enough. I'm searching for a praca with the walkways, trees and shrubs, and the fountain tossing water into the air. And I need to cultivate those "beautiful manners."