May 21, 2023
By Arthur H. Gunther III
An empty room is never so, even if there is no one in it. If there is paint on the wall, someone has been there to do that. If there is furniture, who sat on it? If there is a well-used doorknob, who turned it? If there is a photograph or other artwork, who did that?
Who thought what sitting on a chair in a now-empty room? Who looked at the painting as a portal into life, travel, mystery, anything?
No, there is no room empty of past times, events, people. Even its construction was a tale, a short-story of the carpenter’s daily life.
Do we leave our thoughts behind when we leave a room empty? Or are they there, absorbed by the walls, the furniture, the artwork, to be tapped by the next visitor in a language known as emotion?
The empty room is not.
The writer is a retired newspaperman reachable at ahgunther@yahoo.com
‘LORNA’/gunther
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