Order

I saw a scary movie last night, based on a Poe story, dealing with Victorian asylums - always the stuff of intrigue and horror! And I have read over the last decade, books dealing with confinements - particularly of women for incidents of hysteria, willfulness - or simple dislike! And the methods of "treatment" are unwatchable or unreadable.

I think we are more enlightened. But still, I think we are ill-equipped to handle those of don't conform to our expectations of civility. This week in working at a different library that is located near a homeless shelter, I encountered in the three working hours there, a lady who carried on a vigorous conversation with the inhabitants inside her head, the entire time. She changed cadence and tone to fully accommodate the parameters of the discussion. It was eerie and unsettling.

My first impulse was not of sympathy but of wanting to be rid of her, hoping she would leave, wanting my orderly world to fall back into comfortable place.

Hmm.