A Walk
I just finished walking around the block here.
Walking is great - no amazing. Walking is divine solitude. I walk a one mile loop, which takes me down a lonely, nay sparse, street, and then alongside an old high school repurposed at night into an adult learning center I think. Tonight I walked by and glanced into the classrooms - old, sad classrooms, the old carpeted ones like you remember from your childhood, and I saw older people in there listening. Perhaps they were mainly immigrants taking night classes to learn language? I could not tell, but I had a forlorn feeling, like I should not feel sorry for them but somehow I did. I felt like, this is how you get a better life. Certainly if that is what I was really seeing, then by god I should not feel sorry for them, they are probably far happier than me mainly.
It reminded me of a previous walk in 2007, when I first moved to State College and walked down the street, across the road, down a dark winding footpath, and into a little neighborhood, where I heard people laughing in intimacy.
Anyway, walking is divine solitude, that connects you, and reminds you of our species‘ distant past - night noises, intent listening.
Love,
Jeff