Once more with feeling

We went on a little tour of an historical home nearby over the weekend. It was a lovely event. Everyone was enjoying themselves, and I liked the happiness and the interest in the house and its story. But why do people go so fast? They walk through the rooms and they don’t look at every picture or read the plaques or inspect the detail of the stained glass in the window or the carving of the wood or the pattern of the rug. Nobody just stands there and imagines the people who called it home walking through a day in their life, looks for the likeliest hide and seek spots. Between the people waiting for me to catch up and the people waiting for me to move on, I felt like I barely got a glimpse, and it was such a beautiful atmospheric place. The experience brought to mind the catalog of images in my head of people throughout my life several paces ahead half turned back and waiting for me to catch up. In a world with this many people, I know I can’t be the only one who likes to absorb their surroundings and dream a bit, but I never have met another. Maybe that’s by some kind of design. In large groups we’d hold up too much traffic. 😂