The safety of letters

It always cheers me up to pass this branch of CVS Pharmacy and see that, yet again, there are birds nesting in the large letters of the store’s logo.

How do they get away with it? It’s possible the managers of this particular CVS are all bird lovers. Or maybe they – like Bill Murray in Caddyshack – have been waging a crazed campaign to get rid of the intruders, only to be foiled at every turn. Most likely, they simply don’t care one way or another. I don’t know. But I get a rush of fellow feeling at the sight of the nests, snug in the curves of C and S, lodged in the hollow of P, the cradle of Y, the homely sanctuary of lower case a.

I find safety in letters too. I take refuge in words. And sometimes when people ask what makes me want to write, I wonder (after giving some vague and probably pretentious answer) whether the real explanation could be as simple and as straightforward as that.