Short Story: 'The Lovely Langolier'

I’d grown irritated – perhaps jealous even – by how everyone would always compliment her on her open-mindedness. I asked her, "How can these people think you’re open-minded when you refuse to consider the possibility of any of their ideations being the only true road to their Gods, Goddesses, Sacred, or Source? To this possibility you've clearly remained closed."

She paused, as if to gather her thoughts, and replied, "I have listened to and watched them. I have lived with and learned from them. I've asked and was allowed to do so, and they asked for nothing in return. My openness was welcomed by their openness, and we all benefited from the experience of this openness."

She continued, “As different as people's thoughts and practices might be - as divided as their labels, names, or boundaries might convince you of their being - their spirits are unmistakably adjoined. They love, they suffer, and they live. We all love, suffer, and live...together."

"So, perhaps you are correct,” she contently conceded. “Perhaps I have been closed-minded, in the sense that I have not acknowledged the possibility of any one thing being or possessing some ultimate Truth. In attempting to be open to each of their truths I have grown closer to one of my own – that everyone and everything is an expression of that God, Goddess, Sacred, or Source that I'd like to realize for myself. In this sense I may be perceived as open-minded," she said with a smile.

"That said, the terms and connotations that are associated with my behavior matter very little when compared to the result of the behavior itself,” she continued. "The terms are what the behavior is described as being, while the result is what has actually occurred due to the behavior. Let us focus on as accurate an observation of the result of my so-called “open or closed-mindedness” rather than on what we’d like to name the behavior, that’s produced said result. For the result of my behavior will help elucidate the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of its enactment, in bringing people together or tearing them further apart. If you must assign a value of “open”, “closed”, “good”, “bad”, “right”, or “wrong” to my behavior, I ask that you base it upon its result.”

“In having the privilege to observe and participate in so many different thoughts and practices I cannot justifiably say that any person or people are more or less accurate in their expression or interpretation than any other. How can I or anyone speak with certainty on such matters when the only perspective from which to exercise some all-encompassing understanding of Life from is our own, as individuals? How might I discuss such a thing when my understanding of what this God, Goddess, Sacred, Source, or Truth is – that so many of us seek to express or interpret – rests on my being able to interact with and identify ‘It’ myself? How exactly might a person or people know if they’ve achieved such a feat? What might they reference but the attestation and refutation of their fellow interpreters of Life? Furthermore, who’d be qualified enough on the matter to attest or refute my sense – or anyone else’s – of having experienced such a phenomenon? On what grounds might I claim the capability to do so for others? To what authority do we look to but our own, either presently or historically? Ah, but none can escape bias.”

“We can only aim to remain open to one another’s expression of our Life experiences. We are unable to experience Life from any other perspective except self. I do not understand how, by associating oneself with others of similar interest or belief, a person or people can somehow come to know better than the rest. I feel that certainty, although it may seem to, does not simply come in to being because of an increase in the volume of agreeability and belief cultivated by some group of believers – a false sense of certainty perhaps, as an adopted position rather than as Truth stands. However convincing it may seem to those surrounded by like-minds, who are just as insistent as they in their understanding of how things are perceived to be or ‘ought’ to be, it is inconceivable to me how any person or group of people can claim an unequivocal interpretive authority on God, Goddess, Sacred, Source, or Truth."

"While I've often stated that I've "felt" or "thought" God, Goddess, Sacred, or The Source's presence, I cannot claim that my experience of ‘It’ is the only way to experience ‘It’, nor that it is an actual experience of ‘It’. To do so would state, in no uncertain terms, that I can conceive of all possible manner through which ‘It’ might reveal ‘Itself’, and has. To remain open-minded I must concede to the possibility that someone or something, other than myself, may have achieved this state, however improbable I believe this to be or however dissimilar their interaction with or participation within ‘It’ may have been from my own."

“In retaining my fascination and wonder I make myself available to all manner of cognitive

constructs, ideologies or matter that are meant to express and interpret God, Goddess, Sacred, Source, or Truth. In doing so, I seek to open both my heart and mind to the hearts and minds of others. Rather than close myself off to any possible presence of God, Goddess, Sacred, Source, or Truth, I choose to explore those possibilities with the very people, places, and things that bring my awareness to them. If I am to assume, then it may be this behavior that I have adopted and am cultivating that they refer to as “open-mindedness," in that I have made my mind receptive to and welcoming of their beliefs and practices. I remain on their level of being, not thinking myself above or better than them in my understanding of Life. It is to this that they similarly open their hearts and minds to, to varying degrees.” She smiled. I fidgeted uncomfortably in my seat, and grimaced.

Having been open to wonder she was not closed by belief. Driven by wonder she had come to know the world. In her familiarity with It she had grown more open than ever before. Shamefully, I could now identify the source of my covetousness. I, too, wanted an open heart and mind. I managed a smile. I, too, will have one.

By Albert Osborn Reed