...our eyes locked in one of those looks that sometimes happen between strangers, when both wordlessly agree that reality contains sinkholes whose depths neither can ever hope to fathom.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the profound and unspoken connection between two individuals, acknowledging the mysteries of reality.
In this quote by Nicole Krauss, the author explores the idea of an unspoken bond that can form between strangers through a shared acknowledgment of life's complexities. The 'looks' exchanged signify a deeper understanding of the unseen challenges and emotional depths that exist beyond everyday interactions, suggesting that while we may not fully comprehend these realities, there is a silent recognition of their presence.
In practice
During a poetry reading, one might use this quote to emphasize the theme of shared human experience.
To touch and feel each thing in the world, to know it by sight and by name, and then to know it with your eyes closed so that when something is gone, it can be recognized by the shape of its absence. So that you can continue to possess the lost, because absence is the only constant thing. Because you can get free of everything except the space where things have been.
For her I changed pebbles into diamonds, shoes into mirrors, I changed glass into water, I gave her wings and pulled birds from her ears and in her pockets she found the feathers, I asked a pear to become a pineapple, a pineapple to become a lightbulb, a lightbulb to become the moon, and the moon to become a coin I flipped for her love.
Only later did I come to understand that to be a mother is to be an illusion. No matter how vigilant, in the end a mother can't protect her child - not from pain, or horror, or the nightmare of violence, from sealed trains moving rapidly in the wrong direction, the depravity of strangers, trapdoors, abysses, fires, cars in the rain, from chance.
Iβve always liked the feeling of traveling light; there is something in me that wants to feel I could leave wherever I am, at any time, without any effort. The idea of being weighed down made me uneasy, as if I lived on the surface of a frozen lake and each new trapping of domestic life - a pot, a chair, a lamp - threatened to be the thing that sent me through the ice.
When we went into the ocean, I watched his body as he dove into the waves, and it gave me a feeling in my stomach that wasn't an ache but something different.
Herman slipped his hand into mine, and I thought, An average of seventy-four species become extinct every day, which was one good reason but not the only one to hold someone's hand, and the next thing that happened was we kissed each other, and I found I knew how, and I felt happy and sad in equal parts, because I knew that I was falling in love, but it wasn't with him.
It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race.
Meditation means this opening out of the soul to the Divine and letting the Divine shine in without obstruction from the personal self. Therefore it means renunciation. It means throwing away everything that one has, and waiting empty for the light to come in.
Name the different kinds of people,β said Miss Lupescu. βNow.β Bod thought for a moment. βThe living,β he said. βEr. The dead.β He stopped. Then, β... Cats?β he offered, uncertainly.
Constitutional arguments that seem as dry as dust can have momentous consequences.
It is likewise to be observed that this society hath a peculiar chant and jargon of their own, that no other mortal can understand, and wherein all their laws are written, which they take special care to multiply.
All stories are true,β Skarpi said. βBut this one really happened, if thatβs what you mean.β He took another slow drink, then smiled again, his bright eyes dancing. βMore or less. You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way. Too much truth confuses the facts. Too much honesty makes you sound insincere.
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