Name: James Pritchard
Age: 46
Occupation: Software Project Manager
Favorite Menu Item: Pimento Cheese Sandwich (add tomato)

You are part of the World Peace Café's "clean crew" -- you help clean, paint, and scrub on Mondays when the Café is closed, and almost every single Sunday, you do dishes.  What is it about cleaning at the Café that you find appealing?
Instant gratification. It is awesome to be able to do something so simple as to take a dirty dish, make it clean, and send it on to do its little thing that helps make our Customers feel happy and satisfied for a while. I don't get that much in my 9-to-5 job. I also like the challenge of doing a job that some people might find undesirable, getting past the instinctive reaction to the job, and focusing on the benefit of doing it well. I wish everything I did had as great a net positive impact.

You have been a part of Rameshori Buddhist Center for a couple of years.  Have you found ways to apply Buddhist principles of cherishing others, practicing patience, etc. in the midst of your volunteer work at the Café?
Actually, finding ways to cherish in the midst of the Café is the easy part. The place is so saturated with caring that I would have to try to be negative. The real value I find is to be able to find myself in the challenges of the rest of my week, to be able to remember the warm, funny, and kind people I get to be with at the Café on Sundays, and to see the world in a little bit the same way Monday through Friday. How fortunate I am.