yesterday at my workshop a participant said after an exercise that they "remembered they could love anyone" and i wanted to cry because that was such a pithy way of articulating what i want to accomplish in my life. then i thought about this stranger who asked me for directions at the train station and i used the opportunity to strike up a conversation and they told me they loved reading novels and i asked if they ever thought about writing one and they said they had nothing to say and i was so hurt by a world that makes people feel like they having nothing to say. and i told that person that i wanted to read their stories, even if they were mundane or simple. i told them they had plenty to say. which was my way of telling this stranger, i think, that i love them. and they said "thank you" and -- for a moment -- i, too felt like i could love everyone.
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