You are an interesting word.  Are you a good thing or a bad thing?

Empty things that are good:

• An empty email “In” box.
• An empty dishwasher.  (They’re all clean!)
• An empty clothes hamper. (They’re all clean!)

Empty things that are bad:

• A feeling of emptiness, like a sad and lonely heart.
• A feeling of a glass that is half empty.
• An empty gas tank.

Some empty things can be good or bad.  Like an empty plate, which can mean:

• I ate too much!  Ugh. (Bad)
• I am poor and can’t afford food.  (Bad)
• My little boy cleaned his plate–he got a balanced meal.  (Good)

Now let’s talk about libraries.  I guess an empty library can be good—when you close the library at closing time, you want everyone to leave.  You want the library to be empty.  That’s good.  But when you’re open, you want the library to be full of staff and happy customers.  We also don’t want lovely libraries to be closed and empty because the municipality doesn’t appropriate enough money for them to be open the necessary number of hours.

Indeed, Empty, you are an interesting word.  I’m glad I spent more time with you, thinking about you and getting to know you better.

Sincerely,

“Me”

author’s note: This post was written in response to a Writing 101 assignment.  I’m dabbling with the course.