Saturday, July 7, 2018 5:32 AM

As I do my Friday shopping, I see containers for coin donations by the registers at most of the stores. They've been there all along, but I hadn't noticed them until someone pointed them out today. The oblong or cardboard cans have coin slots like piggy banks. The charities must be able to open, empty, and reuse them. Many of them are dented. Their peeling paint reveals rust. At the home goods store, cans collect funds for religious charities, medical needs, children with autism, and other causes. At the bakery, produce store, supermarket, and falafel shop, some are the same and some different. I can't identify what most are; the names are obscure or use Hebrew terms that I can't quite make out. As I look at them today, I don't actually see anyone putting anything into them, but they're continually there, totems of community, aid, and religion that have become such an accepted part of the marketplaces that they don't stand out at all.