snswllr

[snswllr]

...I met Hema in the septic ward at Government General Hospital in India, in Madras, and that brought me to this continent. Because of that, I got the biggest gift of my life--to be a father to you two. Because of that, I operated on General Mebratu, who became my friend. Because he was my friend, I went to prison. Because I was a doctor, I helped to save him, and they let me out. Because I saved him, they could hang him...You see what I'm saying?

[snswllr]

Her skills were so rare, so needed for the poorest of the poor, and even at times in the royal palace, that she felt valued. Wasn't that the definition of home? Not where you are from, but where you are wanted?

[snswllr]

I often hear this song -- the title I don't know, the tune I can't quite hum -- but the first two lines go something like: 'When I think of the desrt, I think of water / When I think of love, I think of you.'

[snswllr]

When I first arrived in this vast and mysterious land, I used all the communication skills possible to get to know every side of it. Most valuable to me was seeing how people could derive the same joys from life, the same loves and hates as people anywhere else, even while living inthis desert where not a single blade of grass can grow.

[snswllr]

I didn't look down on them. It's not like my personal integrity is much greater than theirs.

[snswllr]

I jumped out of the car with half a mind to laugh myself to death, right then and there, so I could die like one of the Greek gods.

[snswllr]

'What are you thinking about?' Jose asked. 'I was thinking that moths must truly be happiest when they throw themselves into the flame.'

[snswllr]

Whether in a few short days or over the long span of a life, everything disappears in due time: tears, laughter, love, hate, the ups and downs of dreams and reality. On the sand, pure white like snow, there was no trace of the dead. Not even the nocturnal wind could carry aloft their signs.

[snswllr]

The twins were too young to know that these were only history's henchmen. Sent to square the books and collect the dues from those who broke its laws. Impelled by feelings that were primal yet paradoxically wholly impersonal. Feelings of contempt born of inchoate, unacknowledged fear - civilization's fear of nature, men's fear of women, power's fear of powerlessness. Man's subliminal urge to destroy what he could neither subdue nor defy.

[snswllr]

And the Air was full of Thoughts and Things to Say. But at times like these, only the Small Things are ever said. The Big Things lurk unsaid inside.

[snswllr]

Years later, when Rahel returned to the river, it greeted her with a ghastly skull's smile, with holes where teeth had been, and a limp hand raised from a hospital bed.

[snswllr]

While other children of their age learned other things, Estha and Rahel learned how history negotiates its terms and collects its dues from those who break its laws. They heard its sickening thud. They smelled its breeze and never forgot it.

[snswllr]

'We're Prisoners of War,' Chacko said. 'Our dreams have been doctored. We belong nowhere. We sail unanchored on troubled seas. We may never be allowed ashore. Our sorrows will never be sad enough. Our joys never happy enough. Our dreams never big enough. Our lives never important enough. To matter.'.

[snswllr]

Digby could spell SINGER before he could write his name. Standing this close and looking up, Digby feels he's in the presence of God, whose name is SINGER. God has his own trains and railway station to run parts from the foundry to Helensburgh, Dumbarton, or Glasgow. God churns out a million sewing machines a year and employs fifteen thousand people. God lets his mother splurge on drawing paper and watercolors for Digby. God allowed his mother and him to move out from Nana's and live on their own, and be silly and loud and have jam with their tea every day if it pleases them ,and it does.

[snswllr]

She circles them like a madwoman, tearing at her hair, crying out in disbelief, screaming at them, "Don't stop! Don't stop!" But JoJo, stubborn in life, is more stubborn in death and will not breathe for her , or his father, or Shamuel, or others who try; he will not breathe to save their broken hearts.

[snswllr]

Olanna gently placed a pillow beneath her head and sat thinking about how a single act could reverberate over time an space and leave stains that could never be washed off. She thought about how ephemeral life was, about not choosing misery. She would move back to Odenigbo's house.

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

[snswllr]

"Don't see it as forgiving him. See it as allowing yourself to be happy. What will you do with the misery you have chosen? Will you eat misery?"

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie