Summer vacation is not one of them. I do not like, not one bit, all of this down time. But that's the subject of another post. One excellent gift of summer, though, is the opportunity to catch up on my non school, non anti-oppressive practice, non counseling, non social work, non trauma reading.
And now, right now, I am in love with Jose Saramago. {I think Shoes will give me a pass.}
Specifically, I am in love with the following gorgeous passages from "All The Names" {kudos, kudos, kudos, to the translator that took on the task of translating these beautiful words from Portugese}:
" ... I'll begin by asking you if you know how many people there are in a marriage, Two, a man and a woman, No, there are three people in a marriage, there's the woman, there's the man, and there's what I call the third person, the most important, the person who is composed of the man and woman together, I've never thought of that, For example, if one of the two commits adultery, the person who is most hurt, who receives the deepest cut, however incredible it may seem, is not the other person, but that other "other" which is the couple, not one person, but two, And can you really live with that person made up of two people ..." (p. 48)
And this?
"... although we know it is the search that gives meaning to any find and that one often has to travel a long way in order to arrive at what is near. The clarify of this thought, whether the former or the latter, the special thought or the habitual one, the truth that, once you've arrived, it matters little how you arrived there, was so dazzling ..." (p. 53).{Of course, as a counselor in training, I do so whole heartedly believe that it matters greatly how you arrive at your thoughts. Never the less, a clever little phrase indeed.}
What's it about? I have no idea. I'm only on page 65. But, here's the Blurb from the Back:
"Senhor Jose is a low-grade clerk in the Central Registry of an unnamed city, a department where the living and the dead share the same shelf space. A middle-aged bachelor, he has no interest in life beyond his daily routine of issuing certificates of birth, marriage and death. But one day, when he chances upon the records of an anonymous young woman, something happens to him. Senhor Jose, newly obsessed, sets of to follow the thread that may lead him to the woman. But as he gets closer, he discovers more about her - and about himself - than he would ever have wished."I do so also love stories about the soul waking up.
Also, I am a dork, and while I can cite anything - really, almost anything - in APA in my sleep, I had to return to Bedford for MLA:
Saramago, Jose. All The Names. San Diego: Harcourt, Inc, 1997.
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i wasn't au fait with Saramago's work before, but i like those quotes, very sagacious
i love the summer vacation away from the monotony of school (or in my case work), too bad i've to go back long b4 september :(