Not alone
Not alone
By Brandon Astor Jones
"This was a passage I read in a magazine. The author is unknown ... I wondered if any of your readers could place it. I loved the passage so much, I'm sharing it with you. I wish I had written it, for it feels that it has come straight from my heart." — Sharon Jones
From time to time, my sister sends me a short note. Some of her notes have quotes from various authors past and present. Today, she sent a note with two quotations but no author to go with them. If any readers knows the author of the following, please let me know immediately.
"We read to know we are not alone."
"I am one of the searchers. There are, I believe, millions of us. We are not unhappy, but neither are we really content. We continue to explore life, hoping to uncover its ultimate secret. We continue to explore ourselves, hoping to understand. We like to walk along the beach, we are drawn by the ocean, taken by its power, its unceasing motion, its mystery and unspeakable beauty. We like forests and mountains, deserts and hidden rivers, and the lonely cities as well. Our sadness is as much a part of our lives as is our laughter. To share our sadness with one we love is perhaps as great a joy as we can know — unless it be to share our laughter.
"We searchers are ambitious only for life itself, for everything beautiful it can provide. Most of all we want to love and be loved. We want to live in a relationship that will not impede our wandering nor prevent our search, nor lock us in prison walls. That will take us for what little we have to give ... We do not want to prove ourselves to another or to compete for love.
"This is a book for wanderers, dreamers and lovers: for lonely men and women who dare to ask of life everything good and beautiful. It is for those who are too gentle to live among wolves."
[The writer is a prisoner in the United States. He welcomes letters commenting on his columns. He can be written to at: Brandon Astor Jones, Georgia State Prison, HCO1, E-2-36, Reidsville, GA 30453, USA. For the first time in 17 years, Brandon has the real hope of his sentence of death being mitigated. If you can help by contributing to his defence fund or in other ways, please contact Australians Against Executions, PO Box 640, Milson's Point NSW 2061. Phone (02) 9955 1731, fax 9427 9489. Cheques can be made payable to "Brandon Astor Jones Defence Fund".]