Day 149m: A library less than Loving … (September 25, 2019)
I eventually made it “out of the woods” and into the town of Collegedale, where the local library was somehow so much less than welcoming. And it wasn’t only the sign on its front door warning against the use or carry of weapons within, it was the way its employees (at least on that particular day) seemed to weaponize their scorn for all those – like myself – who happened to be homefree. Almost needless to say, I rested here for only a short while before heeding its residents’ call for me to be on my far merrier – and far more peaceful – way …
“I have an idea that some folks are simply born out of their due place. Accident or happenstance has somehow cast them amid certain surroundings, and yet they have always exuded an air of nostalgia for a home they know not – other than it is not where they happen to currently be. As such they are strangers in their birthplace – homeless in their homelands, and even the most peaceful leafy lanes they have known since an early childhood or the warmhearted streets in which they previously played, remain but mere places of passage to them. These are the ones who seem jaded and bitter and lonely and scornful. These are those who spend their whole lives aliens among their kindred and remain aloof even within the only scenes they have ever known. These are the ones so obviously in the most dire need of companionship, and as such these are the ones who – even though seemingly least deserving of the same – merit our Love the most … In truth we don’t need to understand anything about another to give them kindness. We don’t need to know their name or their age or their profession or their drug of choice or their religious beliefs or their political inclinations or their childhood traumas or even their recent tragedies to understand what pain feels like and offer comfort for the same. We are all strangers drawn together by a shared desire for lasting peace … And so it is that we should never hesitate or hang back. And so it is that we must ever go forth and offer a fuller heart.” ~ inspired by W. Somerset Maugham, Marta Mrotek & Kate M. Robertson
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