Lightly Child, Lightly.

Posted on by Live & Learn

 

“Cyrus also worried that the whole idea of gratitude was possibly classist, or worse. Did a poor Syrian child, whose living and dying had been indelibly shaped by the murderous whims of evil men, qualify for grace only if she possessed a superhuman ability to look beyond her hardship and notice the beauty of a single flower growing through a pile of rubble? And would the gratitude for that flower be contaminated by the awareness, or ignorance, of the bodies turning to soil beneath it?

And then, if the girl herself was rubbled by an errant mortar shell, her eyes full of tears and aimed in their final living moment at that flower, which would weigh more on the cosmic scales: a tear of gratitude at the great beauty of a flower lifting through ash, or a tear of delirious rage?

It’s possible, he thought, that the experience of gratitude was itself a luxury, a topless convertible driven through a rainless life. Even the platitudes offered after a tragedy—a divorce, a dead pet—seemed built around the expectation that gratitude was a base level to which you returned after passing through some requisite interval of grief: “In time, you’ll remember only the joy.” People really said that, people who, like Cyrus, could reasonably expect that sufficient training of the spirit would reveal a near-infinite supply of gratitudes hidden in every leaf and sound and mortarless sky.”

— Kaveh Akbar, Martyr!: A Novel (Knopf, January 23, 2024)

Notes:

  1. 1/3 of the way through this masterpiece. This man can write! Highly recommended.
  2. Amazon January, 2024 Book of the Month
  3. Book Review by Junot Diaz, NY Times, January 19, 2024: “A Death-Haunted First Novel Incandescent With Life. In “Martyr!,” the poet Kaveh Akbar turns a grieving young man’s search for meaning into a piercing family saga.
  4. Portrait Credit
  5. Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.

39 thoughts on “Lightly Child, Lightly.”

  2. I just got this book. Bonus that you’re endorsing it. For the most part, we have similar taste in books.

  3. Someone finally said it!
    I appreciate you sharing.

    Indeed, it is a privilege.
    And I wish you could see the little sarcastic dance I do everytime someone mentioned their gratitude journal.
    Do people even know what is going on in the world?

    And before anyone bites me. Yes, it’s your life, enjoy everything you have while you have it. But don’t be numb and look the other way. Look at it all. As you list the 3 or 5, no one goes above 5 interestingly, and also list what you wish you could fix in this world.

      1. Do you also sit in the hot bath with candles and a glass of wine when you’re listing the 5 things you’re grateful for ?

    2. Hey Sawsan and Dave, WHAT are you talking about this gratitude journal? Need I to know about it? Did I miss something?
      HH and me are on our ‘farewell’ tour in Devon, England. So many of our dear, wonderful friends have died, are in poor health and we thought we HAD to see them one more time while we all could get together. It’s uplifting and sad,. disappointing and wonderful, and we try to find solace every day in another park, national trust property, or just sitting around a table with friends. Gratitude is ALWAYS with us and we are daily thankful for what we were/are permitted to live.

  6. Wow. Sounds like a sure read for me. This capitalistic nation works hard to obliterate what is actually essential for living well. I get any needed gratitude adjustment immediately upon seeing someone in a motorized wheelchair, but I also remain there by reading online news venues which cover more of the world than just America (or just our take on the world) — like Al Jazeera, Independent, Guardian, etc. etc. As the saints said with everything but the word itself, the spirit of solidarity is crucial.

  7. Well. Hell. I have now read the full excerpt offered at Amazon and now must break my no-buy rule. You are a troublemaker, David Kanigan.

      2. I wonder if training for gratitude is available only to those who have the liberty to react and think and marvel. I think it’s impossible to feel appreciation if your day to day existence is fraught with peril and uncertainty. Gratitude arrives when the time permits it, when the breath is slowed and the sentiment can truly be considered..

  9. it always shows me something when someone, even in the darkest possible place, can find the space for even a tiny sliver of gratitude in the light

  10. Thanks for the introduction to a new to me writer…”training of the spirit would reveal a near-infinite supply of gratitudes hidden in every leaf and sound and mortarless sky.”…

  11. What a magical excerpt – and a tease, for I feel this book must be read.. “expect that sufficient training of the spirit would reveal a near-infinite supply of gratitudes hidden in every leaf and sound and mortarless sky.” Wow

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