It's not the deer...

“It’s not the deer crossing the road, it’s the road crossing the forest.”

It’s up for debate who this quote is attributed to. I’ve read alternately the Dalai Lama, someone named Chiki, and also Muhammad Ali. It may be someone else altogether. It could just be Universal Mind. Regardless, I found it profound. The simple theory would be, what was there first? The road or the forest?

This has been helpful to me in this turbulent time. This virus, these fires, these hurricanes, these demonstrations, these politics are all roads crossing the forest. At the risk of sounding esoteric, it seems simple. The earth has an incredible proficiency for healing. People, too. The earth has native intelligence. People, too. The earth will survive in some form. People, too.

I have faith in the beauty, goodness and resiliency of the earth. People’s, too. I lost a good friend this week. We had to attend his service virtually through live streaming. A song was sung beautifully, a cappella. Love is here to stay.  I wept. The world turns, I go on living, as does his family. His road ended. Just this time. But his integrity, kindness and intelligence nurtured the paths he crossed and the people in it. That doesn’t disappear regardless of the tumult around us. Not all roads are bad. Keep perspective. Be patient.

THE BONE CLOCKS- AUGUST 2020 BOOK SELECTION

This is my first read (listen) by author David Mitchell, best known for Cloud Atlas. The only downside I can see in the Audible form is the difficulty of going over chapters and passages again at your leisure. It might be nice to have the written form for that purpose.

I have to say this novel was completely captivating. It was challenging, not only in its format but also in its philosophy. I’m not sure if its message is Mitchell’s or simply a brilliant fantasy premise, which speaks to the skill of his writing.

The novel is broken into six interwoven sections running from 1984 to 2043. There are five, first-person point-of-view narrators. The one thread which connects them all is the character of Holly Sykes. We meet Holly at a naive, rebellious fifteen, trying to navigate a betrayal. The second character, Hugo Lamb we meet as a shallow, unethical university student. The third, Ed Brubeck, is a war correspondent trying to balance family and his love of his work. The fourth is Crispin Hershey, a famous writer, bitter and past his popular prime. The fifth is Marinus, an ancient being whose multiple lives span centuries. The sixth and last section brings us back to Holly at age seventy-four trying to make sense of a very different world.

This masterfully plotted fantasy is unlike anything I have read before. I give it high marks. I’m a new Mitchell fan.

Highly recommend.