The Shop Around the Corner?

 

While blasting through Facebook the other day a friend of mine, Roger Saxton, had posted a photograph of the storefront of a small bookstore. My mind immediately brought up memories of the movie, The Shop Around the Corner, which was later transformed into yet another movie, You’ve Got Mail. 

The original movie, The Shop Around the Corner, the 1940 movie was filmed in black and white and starred Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan.  These character’s roles were resurrected in the 1998 movie, You’ve Got Mail, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.  The movies took different paths to match up the two needful individuals down a more meaningful relationship.

Seeing the image of the bookstore’s welcoming appearance reminded me to appreciate the efforts taken to invite such relationships. 

This morning there was another entry having to do with the use of a bookstore to bring about happiness and the necessity of being a useful part of the community. It came from a 72 year old woman whose husband had died and left her alone to meet the challenges of each day.  She had sufficient funds left to her along with a house that was paid for; but being all alone wasn’t life to her, she needed more.

One afternoon while walking she passed a small bookstore with a sign out front indicating the bookstore was closing down at the end of the month.  She entered the store where a young man was busy, not really enjoying the fact that the store wasn’t making financial ends meet and had a stack of envelopes showing overdue bills.

A conversation was begun between the young store owner and the older woman.  Eventually she convinced the young man that she could, with her accounting skills and business abilities, she could help him turn a profit.  She found that there was a storeroom above the establishment that she could use as her apartment.  All she’d need to do was liquify all her assets, sell her house and start working. 

Her son thought she’d lost her mind, but she explained, or tried to explain, that the past two years alone in her house wasn’t living, it was an empty life at best.  She wouldn’t let her son continue trying to talk her out of a major life changing move.

A couple of months went by, lots of effort and her dream of turning the bookstore into a profitable venture had worked. Customers were returning and life was as she had hoped.

All this was running through my mind as I looked at the picture of the small bookstore, an invitation to enjoy life as found within the covers of each book.  Each page containing the thoughts, dreams and wishes of an individual not much different than yourself.