After the Quake by Haruki Murakami & Speaking as an Unrealistic Dreamer

"Tell me, Mr. Miyake, when you see the shapes that a bonfire makes, do you ever feel kind of strange?"

"How so?"

"I don't know, it's like all of a sudden you get very clear about something people don't usually notice in everyday  life. I don't know how to put it, I'm not smart enough, but watching the fire now, I get this deep, quiet kind of feeling."

Miyake thought about it awhile. "You know, Jun," he said, "a fire can be any shape it wants to be. It's free. So it can look like anything at all depending on what's inside the person looking at it. If you get this deep, quiet kind of feeling when you look at a fire, that's because it's showing you the deep, quiet feeling you have inside yourself. You know what I mean?"
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Our hearts are not stones. A stone may disintegrate in time and lose its outward form. But hearts never disintegrate. They have no outward form, and whether good or evil, we can always communicate them to one another. All God's children can dance.
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I want to write stories that are different from the ones I've written so far, Junpei thought: I want to write about people who dream and wait for the night to end, who long for the light so they can hold the ones they love. But right now I have to stay here and keep watch over this woman and this girl. I will never let anyone-not anyone-try to put them into that crazy box-not even if the sky should fall or the earth crack open with a roar.
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-Haruki Murakami, After the Quake

Also check out this great speech by the author upon receiving the International Catalunya Prize.

Though I regret that America is no longer a nation of readers, for those of you who take solace in a good book, I highly recommend After the Quake by Murakami Haruki, a Japanese author. It's a collection of short stories that reminds me of The Catcher in the Rye, but more mature, and with more depth and wisdom.

Check it out.

♥