You’re out of this world
I was rulking (half-run; half-walk) through the inner city a little while back, killing time and thoughts with mindless banter (yes, one way conversations have their benefits) when I noticed a grown man crying hysterically on the opposite side of the road to me. He was probably in his early-thirties, slightly disheveled and seemingly oblivious to his surrounds. It was a disconcerting sight – raw emotion revealed in the full glare of the midday sun. But who knows what calamitous news he may have just received; what heart wrenching decision had just changed the course of his life. Part of me wanted to turn and run as if I’d never seen it. A bigger part of me wanted to go up to him, give him a hug and open my heart up to the truth of his tears. In the end I did neither and simply continued on down the road, leaving him to his grief; and his grief to my conscience. Yes, tiny imperfections, a window to the soul. The Ancient Greeks knew it, the Babylonians knew it. Heck, even Leonard Cohen knows it. ‘Ring the bells that still can ring’, he said, ‘forget your perfect offering, there is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in’. It got me thinking about the austere nature of modern society, about our collective shudder at the sight of unbridled emotion. I pass a thousand strangers every day, each one of them as faceless as the next. But perhaps I should pause for a moment and look them square in the eye, slowly peeling away their onion layers of skin to reveal the living, breathing person within. [illustrations by Yuko Shimizu]
Tagged: colourful illustrations, Japanese artists, portraits, yuko shimizu
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YOU'RE SAYING (7)
Zolton said | 10 August, 2006
thanks richard. i really appreciate the comment. and, yup, i will most certainly check out the gallery.
Sim said | 18 October, 2007
that was beautiful…
Minou said | 21 February, 2008
Great post 
littlewren said | 8 April, 2008
The Australian poet Les Murray wrote a poem about a man weeping in public, called “An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow” and he describes the effect on onlookers as being very profound and in a way connecting them with their own grief and perhaps the lost ability to accept suffereing, both one’s own and that of others, with a certain equanimity the way little children do. The crowd that gathers
“…stare out at him, and feel, with amazement, their minds
longing for tears as children for a rainbow.”
It is published in a volume called The Vernacular Republic by Angus and Robertson.
Andy said | 8 April, 2008
Zolt… wow. That was deep. Such beautiful writing, and such a tender subject. We’re all touched by such events all too often, and we take action all too infrequently.
I just love your new editorials, they add a whole new element here.
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“It got me thinking about the austere nature of modern society, about our collective shudder at the sight of unbridled emotion.”
There’s little if some austerity in modern society but narcissism and egocentricity abound as excesses turned to banality in everyday life.
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Richard said | 10 August, 2006
This submission moved me. I think we all do our best to ensure the streets aren’t truly public. Occasionally, as your descibed, we share some kind of loud honesty and we don’t know how to behave. Good luck in New York, Zolton. Oh, and make sure you visit the Yossi Milo gallery.