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Hey, we're trying something new a
podcast called Thanks for being a part of

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the conversation. A part of the
conversation that you don't get to fall witness

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too is my love for this forest
in South Charlotte, North Carolina. In

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the nineteen nineties, I was the
poet in the Forest. It was a

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children's series that I pinned out.
None of it would be possible if it

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wasn't for this force where I presently
stand right here in Charlotte. I talk

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about it and write about it so
much that I thought it was time that

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you get to be a part of
what has been inspiring me since nineteen ninety

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two. Hey, thanks for being
a part of the conversation. Welcome back

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to the forest today. We're in
the front of it, nearest the street

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the lake. It's too far away, too many trees in the way.

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There is a large stone like figure
in the front part of this forest that

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has been moved several times. It
comes from a building that was built here

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in Charlotte, North Carolina, in
nineteen twenty five, the Mecklenburg County Courthouse,

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which was torn down a few decades
ago. But I remember being in

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uptown Charlotte. I stopped and I
felt something very very strong. I walked

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over to one of the workers that
was ripping the building down, and I

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said, what would twenty dollars get
me? Here's what do you want?

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I said, I want that chunk
that rock right there, that piece of

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concrete. I wanted to go home
to my forest to be preserved forever.

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You see, because the city of
Charlotte doesn't really preserve its history. And

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I thought, wow, I want
a piece of something that I can put

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in this forest, that another writer
another day can sit down beside it and

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go. This is part of a
building that was constructed between nineteen twenty five

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and nineteen twenty eight. A lot
of things took place inside the Mecklenburg County

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Courthouse. And here, in all
honesty, this is it. This is

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a piece of it. But I
wonder how many pieces of this building exist?

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Could this be the only one sitting
inside this forest? It speaks out

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to me every day because the way
that the architect designed the concrete. I

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mean, you can't walk into a
store and purchase this. This was created

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in nineteen twenty five, it's twenty
twenty three. So what happens next?

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You use it as an inspiration tool
to sit beside it to listen. We've

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talked about this before in other episodes
that rocks and trees are the greatest storytellers.

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Does that mean that a man made
rock can be a storyteller? I

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think so. You know, maybe
you don't have a forest, maybe you've

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got a city street. Go sit
by the buildings and listen to the stories.

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How much human energy has passed that
building or that remnant, and you

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could be the one receiving it.
A forest somewhere in South Charlotte, North

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Carolina, an inspiration, a reason
to believe that there's something beyond our present

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place of now. We'll never know
who we're going to reach. I just

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know that this is a ticket to
ride, to jump inside your own imagination

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when you come across this one little
piece of a former Mecklenburg County courthouse.

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Listen to it speak. He might
even sing a song. This is the

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South and there's a lot of music
always playing. Hi, Merril, thanks

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for being part of the conversation.