Walking With Alanis
“To each of our children
I wish to bequeath two characteristics:
The capacity for independence.
The ability to love.
Much of life is lonely.
Most decision-making is lonely.
Independence of mind is the best
Insurance for a rewarding journey.”
— Rolfe Neill, former Chairman and Publisher of the Charlotte Observer, as quoted on the sculpture “The Writer’s Desk” outside of ImaginOn, a children’s library and the home of the Children’s Theatre of Charlotte.
I love exploring Charlotte on foot (and now, apparently, on e-bike thanks to my friend Amy). I’ve always enjoyed being an “urban wanderer,” and for some reason this morning I felt like I was 22 again, meandering map-less through Cambridge and Brookline and viewing the built landscape from a different vantage point without a physical care in the world while simultaneously turning over philosophical quandaries in my mind.
I’ve walked by both these places — ImaginOn and the McColl Center, which is where that Bryant Portwood work pictured is — many times, but today I made my own threaded narrative between the two. With the original post on Instagram, I overlaid it with this song by Alanis Morisette. Why? Well, partly because it took me back to those late 90s wandering weekends as mentioned above, but also because so much of her music revolves around the angsty and sometimes sad question of “Am I ‘good’ enough?” And I guess I would want to say to the symbolic children looking into that book — and whatever wonders it might hold — as well as to the children who might stare up at that sculpture on a trip to ImaginOn: You are.
originally published on instagram