I love unexpectedly coming
across beautiful writing. The quote
below is from a book by Alexandra Fuller, who writes about her life in Africa. All her
books are worth reading, not only for what they tell us about a life lived through
some of the turmoil of African independence wars, but also for the beauty of
the words she uses to describe this life.
Here is a little gem which
makes me understand, once again, why books are so important to me, and how they
have the ability to transport me, as here, into the mysteries of the universe.
“The lion lay next to
Mapenga, contentedly licking fish flesh off the edge of Mapenga’s plate, and we
talked softly about other nights when we had sat around fires in Africa – with different people – listening to wild lions,
or hyenas, or to the deep, singing, anonymous night. Above us the sky tore back in violent,
endless beauty, mysterious and unattainable.
There is no lid to this earth and there is nothing much fettering us to
the ground. Eventually we will die and
be wafted back into the universe. Bones
to dust. Flesh to ashes. Soul into that infinite mystery.”
Alexandra
Fuller: Scribbling the Cat: Travels with
an African Soldier, p. 232
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