April 28, 1972 - An Experiment In Toleration

I came home alone from shopping, eating & seeing the movie alone - an experiment in toleration of loneliness - and I was shattered, sobbing, gasping for breath, wishing the rain would pelt down & soak me into the earth, sick at entering the empty house alone feeling so heavy & full of pain & now I could not imagine bearing the pain longer when I saw a movement, a tiny movement on the ground. I bent closer & saw an earthworm, a night crawler, move faster than my eye could follow into his burrow so that all I could surely see was his pink, shiny, pointed end protruding about a quarter of an inch from his home hole in the dark, moist ground. And there were others lying about, not yet frightened enough to hide. And I smiled at the simple sign of life & it seemed enough to alleviate my burden a perceptible amount.