as it was on yahoo360 07/01/2008 12:29 am
most of my friends ate hot bread in the mornings.
i was happy but happy is an adult word. you don’t have to ask a child about happy, you see it. they are or they are not. adults talk about being happy because largely they are not. talking about it is the same as trying to catch the wind. much easier to let it blow all over you. this is where i disagree with the philosophers. they talk about passionate things but there is no passion in them. never talk happiness with a philosopher.
but i’ m not a child any more and often the kingdom of heaven eludes me too. now, words and ideas will always slip themselves in between me and the feeling. even our birthright feeling, which is to be happy.
this morning i smell the oats and i see a little boy watching his reflection in a copper pot he’s polished. his father comes in and laughs and offers him his shaving mirror instead. but in the shaving mirror the boy can only see one face. in the pot he can see all the distortions of his face. he sees many possible faces and so he sees what he might become.
jeanette winterson – the passion (fragment)