Strangers I Have Known

~ A blog by Melissa Kotler Schwartz

Strangers I Have Known

Monthly Archives: June 2013

Eloise, the Stranger I Wish I Knew

25 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by Melissa Kotler Schwartz in Blog Posts

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Adventures, Albert Einstein, Book, Character, Children's Book, Connections, Eloise, Fan Letter, Favorite, Gandhi, Good Time, Grocery store, Hang Out, Hilarious, Kay Thompson, melissa kotler schwartz, Nanny, Plaza Hotel, Post Office, Real, Skills, Social Security, strangers, The Absolutely Essential Eloise, Trip

I ran into acquaintance of mine at the grocery store a few days ago. Since she knows I have a blog and love to write about strangers, she asked me this question: “Who is a stranger you wish you knew?”

I thought about this for a moment, and then told her that Gandhi and Albert Einstein were the first two people to cross my mind.

I pondered the question further on my way to the post office. As I dropped a pile of bills into the mail, my beloved Eloise popped into my mind.

Eloise, a children’s book character created by author Kay Thompson, has so many features that I admire. She may be only six years old, but she has a lot to teach about interpersonal skills that we all could learn from. My favorite characteristic of Eloise’s is her ability to connect with numerous strangers at the Plaza Hotel, where she lives with her nanny.

In The Absolutely Essential Eloise, Thompson shows us how interesting Eloise’s days are because of these connections with strangers. She spends the day visiting people and imagining events she would like to experience or, should I say, thinks that she would like to experience.

Eloise is curious about the ways of the adult world and she wants to understand how things operate. But because she is, after all, only six, she doesn’t really comprehend much of what she hears, and her interpretations – and the wordings she uses to express them – are hilarious.

For example, she helps a maid named Joanna make the beds at the hotel just so she can learn more about her and the hotel guests. And what she learns about Joanna one particular day is that she “has earrings with garnets and is going to take her Social Security to Bavaria on her birthday.” I hope Joanna’s Social Security has a good time on the trip!

Eloise loves to attend all the events that take place at the Plaza. She invites herself to every wedding and party she hears of, meets a lot of people and has a good time. She’s been to “56 affairs at the hotel” already – most adults don’t go to 56 affairs in six years. That’s impressive. In fact, thanks to my friend who got me thinking about strangers I’d like to meet, I’m about to write my first fan letter to a book character:

Oh, Eloise, I love you to pieces. If you were only real, I’d be tempted to move into the Plaza Hotel with you so we could hang out together. Night after night, we could go to parties and meet people. During the day, we could visit with all the staff and travelers in the hotel. I would have so much material for my blog that I wouldn’t know what to do. In the meantime, keep the stories coming. I’ll catch up with your latest adventures soon.

Your friend,

Melissa

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A Hikikomori in the Wilderness

18 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by Melissa Kotler Schwartz in Blog Posts

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Belgrade Lake, Boo Radley, Burglar, Christmas, Christopher Knight, Decades, Emerge, Green, Hermit, Hiker, Inmates, Jail, Maine, melissakotlerschwartz, New York Times, Newspaper Article, Noisy, Off the Grid, Overpopulated, Peaceful, Police, strangers, Survivor, Uttered, Wilderness, Woods

Hermit Photo

What would you ask a hermit if you met one? I wondered about this when I read an article last week in The New York Times about Christopher Knight, 47, a hermit who lived in the Belgrade Lakes area of Central Maine for 27 years. He is now living in the Kennebec County Jail because he was not only a hermit, but a hermit-burglar.

At first, I was surprised to hear that Christopher has “captured the imagination of people from around the world, who began sending him bail money and even marriage proposals.” But now I get it. I’m intrigued by his story, too. People love legends and Christopher plays into a lot of people’s fantasies: “Living off the grid without paying taxes.” Living a life of freedom. Living on his own terms – no boss, no need to get up early and get to work. No bothersome phone calls, texts, tweets, or emails.

According to the article, when Christopher was caught, “He told the police that he had not spoken during his decades of self-exile except for one day in the 1990s when he had uttered a greeting to a passing hiker.”

His interaction with the hiker really stood out to me because it represented the only moment of human interaction he had had in more than a decade. How does someone not have a conversation with another human for so long? Did Christopher talk to himself? I wondered. When the hiker walked away, did Christopher feel a sense of loss that he had missed the opportunity to connect?

The hermit and the hiker’s exchange made me think of questions I’d like to ask the hermit. As I wrote the questions down, I found more began to emerge.

Did you ever love someone?
Were you lonely on Christmas?
Did you ever write letters to old friends and wish you could mail them?
Did you have any photos that you kept in your tent?
What do you wish you had found but never did in all the houses where you stole things?
Did you always want to be a hermit?
What was the most unusual thing that you’ve ever seen in the woods?

I tried to picture this “Boo Radley of the Woods” in jail surrounded by inmates pestering him for tips on how to break into people’s homes. He went from living in a green beautiful peaceful world to a dismal gray one, overpopulated and noisy. He chose to do what he did to survive the wilderness and that led him to where he is now, in another place where he must also learn to survive.

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Broken Blue

11 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by Melissa Kotler Schwartz in Blog Posts

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Baby Blue, Blocks, Breezy, Broken, Children, Class, Dog, Enameled Necklace, Eyes, Grass, Green, Hummingbird, Journals, melissakotlerschwartz, Natural, Nature, Park, Pea, Recycled, Robin, Ruby, Sidewalk, Skirt, Spiritual, Story, strangers, strangersihaveknown, Tiny

A few years ago, on a spring day, a petite woman wearing a breezy white cotton skirt and top joined our writing class. She wore a long gold necklace with a tiny charm of a green-enameled hummingbird in flight. In her lap, she held a stack of small, recycled tan paper journals. When it was her turn to read her journal entry, she told a story of the joy and sadness she found in seeing part of a tiny, blue, broken robin’s egg on the sidewalk a few blocks from her home.

We were so engrossed in her story that we listened like children do, wide-eyed and speechless. We were all there with her looking at this tiny egg lying on the uneven concrete. She described to us what it meant for her to find it, all the beauty and anxiety she had felt. When she was finished reading, there was a long silence and then we all took a deep breath. It was a spiritual moment for us because we had connected with nature through her story.

A few days ago, while walking my dog in a park, I was reminded of her when I saw a cracked blue robin’s egg lying in freshly cut grass. I bent down closer to inspect it and was mesmerized by its color, almost like the blue in a baby’s eyes but deeper. It was the blue of nature.
Every time this earthy woman came to our class she had more stories to tell of the natural world and because of her insights, I now appreciate nature more deeply.

As I sit here remembering her, a ruby-throated hummingbird is sipping out of our bright red backyard feeder. I’ve learned that it’s the tiniest bird on earth and I’m endlessly amazed when I see one hovering in flight.

I’ve read that their eggs are the size of a pea. I would love to see a hummingbird’s nest, eggs intact and waiting to hatch, but for now I’m happy just seeing this one tiny bird with its radiant wings beating endless times per second.

Robin's Eggs

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Melissa Kotler Schwartz

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Books I Love

  • Bird by Bird
  • Life Work
  • Mrs. Bridge
  • On Paradise Drive
  • The Greatest of Marlys
  • The Long Loneliness
  • The Merry Recluse
  • What It Is

Favorite Blogs

  • 100 Strangers Project
  • Cowbird
  • Humans of New York
  • Sentimental Value
  • Stachist
  • Wow Women on Writing

Links

  • Welcome the "Other"

Podcasts

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