guilty bystander

I admire Merton for calling himself that, even using it as the title to one of his books. Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, read again today. His sentences and ramblings challenge my brain to walk where he’s walking. How people who knew him say that one can never know the real him. So what makes Thomas Merton so special? I know people whom I know I don’t really know. The fun is in making the effort. I often feel like a guilty bystander too.