Happiness writes white when life is a beach.
For the past six days i have been living on a roof. It is a beautiful roof. A perfect roof. It has everything i need: a bed, a loo, a bucket, a tap and the nightsky. It also has a Serb, an American, an Australian and a Finn to keep me company. Life is a beach (again). And it is good. Too good. I am drifting on a wave of fuzzy shanti goodwill. I am all at sea in a soup of Nothingness. What do i do all day? I do Nothing. My days are spent doing Nothing to excess. My days are full of Nothingness - a surfeit of bliss, replete with zeros. And against the blue sky hovers a big black question-bird; a hybrid of Catholic guilt and warped Protestant work ethic.
What are you doing here? You are a traveller, not a tourist! Get yourself out of this tourist trap, this theatre of pretend India with its cardboard scenery, its Jeffery Archer novels, its blue skies and its sunsets. Travelling is meant to be difficult! (I have had long bus-rides worth of musing on the etymological roots of that word: travelling. To travel is to travail, is to work, is to labour, is to give birth to. Perhaps)
But i have been reading, and i will share with you a fraction of the goodstuff. The first is from the collected writings of Henry David Thoreau, the second from Isaiah 5 (the Bible) and the third from Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.
The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved by the most delicate handling. Yet we do not treat ourselves, nor one another, thus tenderly.
...
Woe to those who stay up late at night inflamed with wine. Never a thought for the works of Yahweh. That is why my people are in exile, for want of perception. That is why Sheol opens wide its throat and gapes with measureless jaw...woe to those whose might lies in wine imbibing, their heroism in mixing strong drinks.
...
Justice is a judgement that is both fair and forgiving. Justice is not done until everyone is satisfied, even those who offend us and must be punished by us. Justice is not only the way we punish those who do wrong. It is also the way we try and save them.
For the past six days i have been living on a roof. It is a beautiful roof. A perfect roof. It has everything i need: a bed, a loo, a bucket, a tap and the nightsky. It also has a Serb, an American, an Australian and a Finn to keep me company. Life is a beach (again). And it is good. Too good. I am drifting on a wave of fuzzy shanti goodwill. I am all at sea in a soup of Nothingness. What do i do all day? I do Nothing. My days are spent doing Nothing to excess. My days are full of Nothingness - a surfeit of bliss, replete with zeros. And against the blue sky hovers a big black question-bird; a hybrid of Catholic guilt and warped Protestant work ethic.
What are you doing here? You are a traveller, not a tourist! Get yourself out of this tourist trap, this theatre of pretend India with its cardboard scenery, its Jeffery Archer novels, its blue skies and its sunsets. Travelling is meant to be difficult! (I have had long bus-rides worth of musing on the etymological roots of that word: travelling. To travel is to travail, is to work, is to labour, is to give birth to. Perhaps)
But i have been reading, and i will share with you a fraction of the goodstuff. The first is from the collected writings of Henry David Thoreau, the second from Isaiah 5 (the Bible) and the third from Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.
The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved by the most delicate handling. Yet we do not treat ourselves, nor one another, thus tenderly.
...
Woe to those who stay up late at night inflamed with wine. Never a thought for the works of Yahweh. That is why my people are in exile, for want of perception. That is why Sheol opens wide its throat and gapes with measureless jaw...woe to those whose might lies in wine imbibing, their heroism in mixing strong drinks.
...
Justice is a judgement that is both fair and forgiving. Justice is not done until everyone is satisfied, even those who offend us and must be punished by us. Justice is not only the way we punish those who do wrong. It is also the way we try and save them.
posted by effie at 2:25 AM
3 Comments:
Hey Effie!
Enjoy it while you can! I wish I was out there - it's pissing it down and windy in the UK this winter, mimserable!
btw, Jane has just been in India - Oxfam sent her to Mumbai for a week at the last minute.
Love reading your blog, you should write a book!
Shalom!
Tom.
but Effie! That's half the beauty of travelling! Having the time and disposition to lounge in exotic places and read things! They always have such a different feel when you're on a journey. I read Lord of the Rings last time I was in India, and the journey, and Frodo, stuff jumped out and hit square between the eyes in a way that would never have happened if I was sitting at home and reading!
Reading your blog is very comforting, especially when I get all worked up about our impending journey, I look at your happy photos and remember that it's not all bad!
blah blah blah
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