... or Book Group
... or Local Wonders
Ted Kooser, 13th US Poet Laureate (2004-2006), wrote a book called Local Wonders. This one isn't, technically, poetry. It's part memoir, part vignette, part a year, part years of our lives. And we chose this book for one of our book group discussions.
Our book group is made up of introverts. We vicariously introduce ourselves through the characters we read. You can hear it in the way we discuss. For instance, "what do you think about...?" is one of the most common question introductions we have. The braver, or more comfortable, among us will pluck up massive bravado, study our own notes, and then ask, "Does anyone else...?" There is usually a collective sigh and smile when another brave soul, in surprised response, says, "yes."
We are extraordinarily normal and mostly invisible. All of us are approximately middle-aged or older. We are the people you rush around as you gather groceries on the way home from work because it's your turn to cook dinner and the rest of the family will be home soon. We are the ones you hold the door for, because we resemble your favorite aunt (or mother, or grandmother). We are the frumpy slow people on the bicycle path getting exercise and watching birds while you rush to fill your cardio requirements. We might even be some of the people whom others resent because we seem to lack nothing. We know we have each been lucky which is why we all volunteer to the extent we are able.
In our collection of pasts we have dear friends with tattoos left over from concentration camps, and have watched a loved one get eaten by cancer, and those who have survived cancer themselves. We have watched children go from impenetrable teenagers to successful college students and some children who have become addicts who hide it well. We have watched loved ones forget everything without having any control over their memories, we have been poor, sometimes homeless, feeling loveless. We have had as many divorces as we have continuing marriages. We've met the scorn of unapproved love for someone of the same sex, and have had some of our own group members die. Not a one of these pasts is unique to our group, which is what makes us so normal.
We are a wonderful bunch of local and quietly competent people who still have more that could burble to the surface once we read the character that burbles us.
When we meet, the usual talk and casual pleasantries show up, we and dredge up memories of what was happening last month. We'll discuss the book, showing a bit more of ourselves. And we'll have some comfort food -- more comfort because of the company than because of the food itself. Then we'll sit down to the serious business of solving (or continuing to solve) the world's problems. If you should happen to stroll past one of these living rooms on a night cool and warm enough for the windows to be open, and if you should hear us laughing, then you know that we have solved one of the world's problems.
And so, Jane, when you read this: Know that there is a small group of extraordinarily normal introverts with gratitude for you having sent Local Wonders.
