Last night in my reading of the current book club selection, Cutting for Stone, I came across what truly might be the best ever weaving of words.
Let me set it up a bit...
The words of the century came in the book after a well known African children's tale was referenced. A tale about a miserable merchant who hated the fact he had no money and hated the fact he held a lowly job and hated his life so much so that he couldn't even stand the sight of his battered and beaten slippers anymore. He kept trying to get rid of the ghastly in his eyes slippers but every time he did, more disaster struck. Catastrophic disaster. The reference to this made in Cutting for Stone comes when the character named Ghosh is in an Ethiopian prison (Kerchele). The old jailbird man who tells stories every night while they all try to sleep ends up saying right before they all drifted off - that merchant "might as well build a special room for his slippers. Why try to lose them? He'll never escape." The man then died in his sleep while imprisoned.
Flash forward to Ghosh talking to his son after he is out of prison. He says while discussing life and its twists and turns, "The old man was right. The slippers in the story mean that everything you see and do and touch, every seed you sow, or don't sow, becomes part of your destiny..."
And then they came. What might truly be the best ever string of words.
"Ghosh sighed, 'I hope one day you see this as clearly as I did in Kerchele. The key to your happiness is to own your slippers, own who you are, own how you look, own your family, own the talents you have, and own the ones you don't. If you keep saying your slippers aren't yours, then you'll die searching, you'll die bitter, always feeling you were promised more. Not only our actions, but also our omissions become our destiny.'"
Owning the slippers. Owning the slippers on our feet. How beautiful. How perfect.
What follows now has entirely nothing to do with the aforementioned other than the to say one thing I own about myself is the poor planning of slamming in last minute projects. Case in point this one, the painting of the two end tables I've had sitting in the garage since last winter when they were on the teacher classifieds as brown 1960 veneer numbers.
I decided they had to be finished before I started my new job. Had to! It started like any other painting project of mine. With an oh I know! I'll just paint these real quick like today. Which turned quickly into a you've got to be kidding me?! This is taking forever and now I have paint all over hell and can this just be done already? I did push through and finish them - all two coats and a wax job later - and I do indeed rather enjoy how they turned out. Even if my driveway still has blue speckles of paint all around.
Back to the slippers and owning your own pair. I do believe that sentiment and the way it was spoken is the best I've heard to describe successfully wrapping your head around life.
Let me set it up a bit...
The words of the century came in the book after a well known African children's tale was referenced. A tale about a miserable merchant who hated the fact he had no money and hated the fact he held a lowly job and hated his life so much so that he couldn't even stand the sight of his battered and beaten slippers anymore. He kept trying to get rid of the ghastly in his eyes slippers but every time he did, more disaster struck. Catastrophic disaster. The reference to this made in Cutting for Stone comes when the character named Ghosh is in an Ethiopian prison (Kerchele). The old jailbird man who tells stories every night while they all try to sleep ends up saying right before they all drifted off - that merchant "might as well build a special room for his slippers. Why try to lose them? He'll never escape." The man then died in his sleep while imprisoned.
Flash forward to Ghosh talking to his son after he is out of prison. He says while discussing life and its twists and turns, "The old man was right. The slippers in the story mean that everything you see and do and touch, every seed you sow, or don't sow, becomes part of your destiny..."
And then they came. What might truly be the best ever string of words.
"Ghosh sighed, 'I hope one day you see this as clearly as I did in Kerchele. The key to your happiness is to own your slippers, own who you are, own how you look, own your family, own the talents you have, and own the ones you don't. If you keep saying your slippers aren't yours, then you'll die searching, you'll die bitter, always feeling you were promised more. Not only our actions, but also our omissions become our destiny.'"
Owning the slippers. Owning the slippers on our feet. How beautiful. How perfect.
What follows now has entirely nothing to do with the aforementioned other than the to say one thing I own about myself is the poor planning of slamming in last minute projects. Case in point this one, the painting of the two end tables I've had sitting in the garage since last winter when they were on the teacher classifieds as brown 1960 veneer numbers.
I decided they had to be finished before I started my new job. Had to! It started like any other painting project of mine. With an oh I know! I'll just paint these real quick like today. Which turned quickly into a you've got to be kidding me?! This is taking forever and now I have paint all over hell and can this just be done already? I did push through and finish them - all two coats and a wax job later - and I do indeed rather enjoy how they turned out. Even if my driveway still has blue speckles of paint all around.
Back to the slippers and owning your own pair. I do believe that sentiment and the way it was spoken is the best I've heard to describe successfully wrapping your head around life.
1 comment:
Cool blue tables in person and in photos. Like the "owning" words very much.
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