The laughter flowed freely, as if the devastation of the last few days had dammed it up until it burst from us all at once.
There are many white people in Grand Rapids, and gossiping about dog breeds is, I guess, what we do.
So during my sixth and final semester at Calvin, I waited.
and waited.
and waited.
So consider this a love letter from your faraway child.
The word alderman has Anglo-Saxon origins: a noble (serving the king) as ruler of a local district. Quite literally it means “old man.”
Seeing chipped stained glass and other signs of disrepair was dismaying, but it also renewed my appreciation of how church architecture brings grandeur into public space.
“I’m actually on a connecting flight, traveling to a corn hole tournament. It’s a pretty big deal,” the man in the seat behind me announced.
While at home, I went on a walk, remembering how, after a long rain, the air would smell like cupcakes or Cheerios as the fumes from General Mills wafted over the trees and rooftops.
One Monday morning a couple weeks ago, a man did something I should have been prepared for.
I haven’t outgrown my loneliness, but I do think I’m growing into my own solitude.
