Sharing From Experience

Today...noticing the sun was back...I went on a trip to the West End. At Bute and Davie ...I heard a female voice call my name. It was a young woman who organizes poetry gatherings I'd read poems or sang at. For some reason I sensed that she herself was going through some life difficulty and we began to chat. In our conversation...I found myself telling her about how idealism...accompanied by protracted intensity...could take a person to what I call "Holy Invalidhood"...i.e. how someone...with a very high ideal...who does not learn how to have changes of pace...and above all does not learn to back off from too much intensity on his or her path...can become an "invalid" from not managing their path wisely. I added that...having become that way...if you go stumbling and mumbling through the city streets...no one will say..."he's a mumbler and stumbler now...but that happened because of a great ideal!". I added that one of the best things that a person can do...is to become his or her own friend. After a while she said..."I've been drinking in what you've been saying...because you've been talking about me!"...I said then that I was only talking from my own experience living through the territory we were talking about. We parted warmly...and I had the sense that what I had shared...may
have helped her in some little way. I hope it did.............Quester.