June 29, 2025

By Arthur H. Gunther III

thecolumnrule.com

Sometimes there is the unexpected. You are in the quiet, no one talking to you though people are about. And that’s OK, because we all need space; it’s good for you.

You are in the quiet, maybe in a house in the country, straw fields about, blue sky in the background. All the windows save one are dark though there is daylight. Strange, you think, because you know you are not alone. Why hasn’t someone pulled up the shades? The door is closed as well, not open to the early-morning breeze.

But where you are, the front room, there is a window with a pane of light, surely in contrast to the darkened ones.

You begin to drift off, the newspaper gently dropping to your lap, the coffee cup still steaming half-full. The window light from the east warms your face as you fall asleep.

Moments later, though it seems a millisecond, you awake. The house, too, comes to life. The cat jumps up, someone walks in to talk. The ordinary day begins. But you have already traveled in the strong light of the quiet.

The writer is a retired newspaperman.

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