(written just after the 2016 Presidential election)
When the kids were little (and before the internet), we spent hours in the library each week. Dashed out to the car with coins, not once, but twice, even though we all promised: “Only an hour on the meter this time!” Filled growing arms with piles of books even though we brought the beefy canvas tote and committed, ahead of time: “10 books each is plenty!”
Inside the library, there are still places, long neglected by my feet, which are so familiar to me. Stacks and rows, like old friends… 100s, 200s, 300s, 600s. Places where I opened my world, narrowed my world, explored my world, defined it as a new mother, as a mother beginning to reclaim herself, as a woman stepping forward.
There is the table in the mezzanine where I sat working while my kids were at school. There is a view of the town. Of cars passing. Of leaves falling. Of first flurries.
And inside–readers & writers & viewers & nappers, of all ages, and race.
There are those who always vote. Those who never vote. Those who voted democratic for the first time. Republican for the first time.
We all remain quiet.
(Most of the time.)
We share tables and chairs and computers and books.
The Empty Nest Diary 