‘TWO WINDOWS’/gunther
September 17, 2023
By Arthur H. Gunther III
In a day’s time, you can sit in a room in thought that is idling like your 1955 English Ford in neutral, the constant turn of the engine pistons reassuring that you can just molt a bit. We all need to be in neutral sometimes, with trust that the motor will not stop. For if it does, that’s another story.
Hustle-bustle has its place – things have to get done in life, in the daily day – but the treadmill which it can become has to have an idle switch, or you are likely to fall off.
Sometimes in a room, in the quiet, you glance up and see through a door opening into another room or space. On the couch, in the armchair, it is comforting to know that in idling, in neutral, you do not have to get up and walk into that place. Unless you want to, but then you’ve already decided to put yourself into gear.
Quiet is enhanced in neutral, and it can be delicious, almost a treat. You don’t need company; you don’t have to mull things over; you can day dream; you don’t have to bring a cup of tea, as comforting and reaffirming as that also can be, for there is a special existence in molting that is other-worldly. You require nothing but to idle in neutral. With the motor purring, of course. (You do have to get up eventually.)
The writer is a retired newspaperman. ahgunther@yahoo.com
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