Wolf Hall, Parts III & IV (Entry 3)

I have finished Parts III and IV. The roof did cave in on the heart of England . .. but not everyone got squished.

Thomas Cromwell

Think of it this way. Thomas Cromwell, through whose eyes / thoughts /life we are watching history unfold, lost his wife and several beloved children in Part II. He said good bye to his healthy wife one morning, she was cold before he returned home that evening.  In his childhood, Cromwell lost his mother young, and had a more-than-terrible father.

So loosing his mentor Cardinal Wolsey, and having to gain the favor of the mercurial King and his perhaps-to-be future bride to maintain his upward climb, well, these are just bumps in the road.

And knowing that all of England was going to be thrown in turmoil over the Pope / annulment / Tyndale Bible issue... well, just another bump in the road.

Cromwell doesn't have time to grieve. To be sentimental. Must march forward. But I do love the glimpses into those once in a blue moon thoughts that bubble up from inside his heart. They bubble up, they float for a brief moment, then POP! they are no more.

Cromwell was fond of Wolsey.

Cardinal Wolsey had done so much for Henry. And in the process built up quite an empire of his own. King Henry benefited as well.  As Cromwell says, What was England before Wolsey? A little offshore island, poor and cold. 

Anne Boleyn with Marmoset

All this because Henry wants Anne. Yes he wants an heir. But really, don't you get the idea that he really wants Anne?

What did she have that he was totally bewitched? She is not portrayed as beautiful in any classical or sensual manner. Is it her ability to create mystery?  The art of the allure. I don't really know.

Being so unversed in history, I am struggling through some sections not understanding the brief asides Mantel throws at us. These are asides she assumes we understand.

Where is Flanders? Who is The Emperor? When Henry wants the Houses to vote on something, exactly who are they? Why can't the king just say something and it happens? He has to answer to some other political body? Sometimes I put down the book,  pull out my IPAD and google away.

Mantel isn't sculpting everyone's story. She is showing us scenes in a play. There are gaps between. The interludes are left to our imagination.

 Mantel is writing Cromwell's story. He is three dimensional. He has more than three dimensions, as we see his thoughts, his soul. We see his sense of humor. We hear his side comments when he has to bow down to those higher born yet lower on the evolutionary scale.

Take Call-Me. As in Call-Me-Risley. Which is short for the pompous Thomas Wriothesley. Every time I see Call-Me written, I can't help but smile and say, Yes Cromwell, you know this is all a game you are playing, and you play it so well! Pity others take themselves so seriously.

And there's Norferk. And love those French... calling upon Cremuel.

Cromwell's household  all refer to the pompous Thomas as Call-Me.

Tudor England

Speaking of households, have you noticed they are huge. So many deaths produce so many orphans. So much living hand-to-mouth produces so many young people hoping for a future, willing to leave or be forced to leave home for that chance. The Cromwell household has in-laws, friends' sons, and a few picked up randomly. Cromwell sees the best in each, nurtures it. He sees himself in these young men. In some of them.

Then there are those born with a silver spoon in their mouths. We see the tide rising and falling in Thomas More's life.

Yes, More is the Lord Chancellor. Take a breath. No, he's not Lord Chancellor anymore.

He is not a sweet kind nice type of  guy. Tortures and burns people because they are heretics, they believe the Bible should be translated into English and put in the hands of all people. Well, I agree with them. 

More has strength in his convictions. He is loyal to the Pope, to the church he loves. And there's good in that. Sounds like a Pharisee in Jesus' time. No mercy. Hard of heart. Thomas More reminds me of Javert in Les Miserables. We will see.

Sir Thomas More and Family.  Thomas More is in center. His father Sir John More is near center in red robe.
Wife Alice is on far right. Fool Henry Pateson is back row in gold robe.

So, remarkable passages. Two phrases jump out at me. They've been repeated.  They describe Cromwell perfectly to me. I can hear him saying these, to himself and to his children.

Choose your prince. 
 Cromwell was loyal and energetically served Cardinal Wolsey. Once Wolsey fell out of favor, Cromwell started nurturing his relationship with another "prince",  the King, without turning his back on the Cardinal. Then when Cardinal Wolsey died, Cromwell was in a plump position to become one of the King's advisors.

 This is how you rise in station. Cromwell is not a man of conviction to political sides. He is a man of conviction to rising in power and wealth. He can go one way or the other. He doesn't seem to be immoral. So far. The jury is still out. He needs to find the next stepping block. He had to choose his prince.

A tapestry from 1500's depicting
 Queen of Sheba visiting King Solomon

Arrange your face.  
Cromwell was brilliant. Knowledgeable in every area I can imagine - numbers, business, language, diplomacy, counseling, theology, politics. He had only his service to others to propel his fortunes forward. 

Humbler than humble background,  his future lay in what he could do for those in power. Therefore his emotions and opinions were always filtered. What a life.  

Except perhaps with Anselma, back in his youth. 

Now he had to hide his true feelings, arrange his face. Take a deep breath. You can do it. Anselma.

 The Tapestry of Queen of Sheba visiting King Solomon was given by Cardinal Wolsey to Cromwell. The face of Queen of Sheba reminds Cromwell of Anselma, the love of his youth, who is now married. To someone else. 

Don't know if this tapestry means something more. Certainly it shows honoring the King. 

Okay, other passages. Longer ones.

1. Bonvisi's house in Bishopsgate. The guests have departed. Didn't you feel as if you were seated right there at the table with More, Monmouth, Cromwell as Chapuys entered?

Anyway. Everyone has left. Cromwell reflects on all the players in this drama sitting at that same table - adding such as King Henry and his doughty little queen, Lady Anne restlessly tugging at the pearls around her neck, Pope Clement snarling at the too coarsely cut quinces, and Brother Martin greasy and fat.Mantel enlarges the roof falling in, to encompass Christendom.  

This will be interesting.

         He will remember it, the fatal placement: if it proves fatal. That soft hiss and whisper, of stone  destroying itself; that distant sound of walls sliding, of plaster crumbling, of rubble crashing onto fragile human skulls? That is the sound of the roof of Christendom falling on the people below. 

2. A glimpse into Cromwell. Inside Cromwell. Only in his dreams can he let his guard down. Mantel is doing a superb job. I know this guy. I understand his thinking. I see his flaws.  He's going to do what he needs to do to survive. To thrive. He's not mean. He just isn't sentimental. He's a survivor. Survived childhood. He will survive this roof falling down.

        He hardly sleeps. He dreams of Liz. He wonders if she would know him, the man he vows that soon he will be: adamant, mild, a keeper of the king's peace.

3. Cromwell reacts to dissention in his own household, Austin Friars. By the way, Austin Friars is a 5 acre monastery just outside London (inside London now), where the Cromwells home was right at the monastery walls. Back to Cromwell

         if they are not to be flattened in the next charge it is he who must teach them the defensive art of facing both ways, faith and works, Pope and new brethren, Katherine and Anne. 

Henry and Anne hunting

4. Pivotal passage of King Henry's dream, with Cromwell interpreting and Cranmer nodding agreement.  He's planting the seed for Henry to separate from the Pope. And all the while Cromwell thinking how immature King Henry is. 

        He bites back the temptation to say, because you are forty and he is telling you to grow up.... "Because now is the time to become the ruler you should be, and to be sole and supreme head of your kingdom. Ask Lady Anne She will tell you. She will say the same."

      "She does", the king admits. "She says we should no longer bow to Rome."

      "And should your father appear to you in a dream, take it just as you take this one. That he has come to strengthen your hand."

5.  Cromwell is brilliant. Brilliant at creating a logical argument. For or against ... anything. The art of gentle persuasion. You get the feeling he doesn't have deep commitment to any one belief or person. 

After he and Johane talk about proceeding forward as friends, nothing more, his mother-in-law Mercy says to Cromwell:

          Thomas, when you're cold and under a stone, you'll talk yourself out of your grave. 

Two merchants, circa 1515

6. Money is power. Even back then. Who would have guessed. 

       The world is not run from where he thinks. Not from border fortresses, not even from Whitehall. The world is run from Antwerp, from Florence, from places he has never imagined; from Lisbon, from where the ships with sails of silk drift west and are burned up in the sun. Not from the castle walls, but from counting houses, not be the call of the bugle, but by the click of the abacus, not by the grate and click of the mechanism of the gun but by the scrape of the pen on the page of the promissory note that pays for the gun and the gunsmith and the powder and shot.” 

7. Cromwell is human after all.  This is one of those spots I mentioned before. A glimpse into the vunerable human-ness bubbling up from Cromwell's heart. It appears. And like a bubble on the wind, it vaporizes. 

Who of us hasn't stood overlooking the ocean (or a gravesite, or a sink of dirty dishes after Christmas dinner), and talked to a parent passed years ago?

Can't you just see Cromwell standing in Calais? Smell the salt in the air. Feel Cromwell's well-deserved pride in his successes dampened by long ago planted mistrust... that all good things will crumble.... eventually.

Two hours. Two kings. What do you know, Walter? He stands in the salty air, talking to his dead father. 

King Henry VIII

8. And so, in fact,  is the King human. 

       He had said, how will I know when it happens? The cardinal had said, "I should think you'll know by his face." ...

       He looks large, broad, benign. His regal glance scans the crowd. It alights on him. The king smiles. 

       As he leaves the church, Henry puts on his hat. it is a big hat, a new hat. And in that hat there is a feather. 

We finish Part IV with Henry and Anne stepping over the threshold into uncharted waters.  Yes, they finally stepped.  

 No where for Henry to go but forward with his quest to rid himself of wife number 1 (Katherine of Aragon) and legally marry wife number 2 (Anne Boleyn).

And there's Cromwell, right in the middle of things. Waiting to be of service. His influence  has spread into so many nooks and crannies.  Now let's watch him use it. 

Do you think Cromwell would have blogged? No, he wouldn't have wanted to show his hand...

On to Parts V and VI.

Wolf Hall (Entry 2)

Is there anyone out there who doesn't love a pun?

Wolf Hall, Parts I, II (Entry 1)

Have finished the first two Parts of Wolf Hall.

Six Parts total. Each Part has three Sections.

This woman is an organizational force.

I just have to stop and talk with you. This book is riveting. I am delving into Tudor England. That's basically the 1500's to us non-history people.

Parts One and Two of Wolf Hall span 1500-1529. 

Columbus had already claimed America for powerful Spain. Leonardo da Vinci finished his Mona Lisa and Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling. The Renaissance is in full glory.

Magellan's Spanish expedition went round the world (he died en route in the Phillipines.) Verazzano also tried sailing around the world, a northern passage, for France. Ended up in New York Bay.

The Protestant Reformation was launched when Martin Luther nailed his criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church on the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral. Suleiman the Magnificent takes over Ottoman Empire. Lots of battles in France, Germany, Italy. Egypt, Middle East. In the Far East, China's Ming Dynasty is seeing problems, especially those Manchus.

Henry VII

Okay. Back to England.

In 1500, the English people remember the period of the Wars of the Roses (1455-85).  Lots of battles to see who would be the King of England. York and Lancaster both claiming the succession rights.

The main players were the powerful and turbulent nobles, so, when the Henry VII triumphed (he reigned 1485-1507), he set about curbing their power and centralizing government in his own hands. Henry VII was the first of the House of Tudor. He was of the Lancaster side, and married a York, so the schism would be healed. Or so he thought.

Henry VIII at age 18

Henry VIII was the second son. His older brother Arthur was to succeed his father as king, but he died before his father in 1502. Arthur was 15. Henry was 10. So from then on, Henry was groomed to be king.

Arthur had been married to the Spanish royal Catherine of Aragon for 20 weeks before he died. An arranged marriage to cement the Spanish and English alliance.

When Arthur died, it took some time for everyone to approve of Henry marrying his brother's widow, Catherine. Both England and Spain wanted this, but they needed approval from Rome.  From the Pope.

Then his father died. King Henry VII died in 1509.

Within two months time, Henry married Catherine of Aragon.
And was crowned King of England.

Catherine of Aragon

Quite the two months.

Enough background. I felt it was important to know going into this book, why the idea of having a clear successor was so enormously important to Henry VIII.

Enormously important.

 More so than just for any monarch.

Henry's entire life has been hearing about and living the question of "Who's the successor?"

Thomas Cromwell. This book is really about him, so far. Remember, I'm only on page 130. So my comments are only through what I've read so far.

We hear Cromwell's thoughts, though sometimes he refers to himself as "he." I find that a little confusing at times. Maybe it is to give the book the formality of people's thoughts in the 1500's.

Thomas Cromwell

A tough childhood. An exhausting career. People die. Mothers. Children. Wives. And some so quickly.

 I am so fortunate to be removed from that world. We can romanticize Tudor England all we want. But in reality, there was stinky (no modern plumbing), there was cold and wet (material science we love you for your water-repellent  jackets.)  There were no antibiotics (fever in the morning, dead in the evening.) No grocery stores (pluck that chicken, if you ever have one.) No cars with air conditioning or heating. Must I go on?

What we see is that human nature remains the same. Now and then. There was kindness. There was charity to those less fortunate. There was anger and violence. There were power struggles and scandals. And there was love. There were the haves and the have-nots. And it was much better to be a have.

Cromwell rises from the gutter, self-taught in the social graces as well book learning, accounting, business acumen and people skills. He is quite the guy.

Cardinal Wolsey

As Cardinal Wolsey's right hand man, we have a front row seat in the world of 1529 England. The church and the state are revving up for conflict.

Cromwell learns much from his service to the powerful Lord Chancellor Cardinal Wolsey.

"Try always, the cardinal says, to learn what people wear under their clothes, for it's not just their skin. Turn the king inside out, and you will find his scaly ancestors" his warm, solid serpentine flesh." 

Here's a map of Tudor England, with the various Duke's properties marked on the main map. So far the Duke of Norfolk has appeared (Anne Boleyn's uncle) and the Duke of Suffolk (Charles Brandon, friend of Henry VIII.)

 On the little map to the top right are the two areas of ecclesiastical dominion. The pink area is Cardinal Wolsey's.

Cromwell is a lawyer. A really good lawyer.  Many come to him for sound business advice. He is practical. He is knowledgeable about every subject. He is not pompous. He is confident and street smart.

Just when you think he has too many responsibilities, too many balls juggling, to stop and think of heaven and God and eternity,  here comes a passage that lets us peek into his soul. Or Mantel's vision of his soul.

Cromwell's just lost his two daughters Grace and Anne. Grace died in his arms. Cromwell is grieving.  He thinks of Tyndale's new translation of the Bible (banned in England as being too anti-Catholic):

 "now abideth faith, hope and love, even these three; but the greatest of these is love."

[Thomas] More, he knows, thinks "love" is "a wicked mistranslation. He insists on 'charity' . . . He would, for a difference in your Greek, kill you. 

He wonders again if the dead need translators; perhaps in a moment, in a simple twist of unbecoming, they know everything they need to know.

Tynedale says, "Love never falleth away.""

Oh wow. 

Catherine before Henry VIII at hearing

And the drama of the court hearing on Catherine's marriage to Henry. Was it valid? Was her previous annulment (from Arthur) on false pretenses? Mantel did this well. I felt as if I were in the court room. And I was ever grateful for today's legal system, flaws and all.

Mantel has set the stage for the ensuing drama of Henry VIII's life. The Catholic Church and the Pope. Catherine of Aragon.  Anne Boleyn. Thomas Cromwell. Thomas More. The Dukes.

King Henry VIII hasn't made much of an appearance, yet. We did see him at the court hearing. We have heard about his wishes (break marriage to Catherine, marry Anne). Have seen the results of his wishes (Cardinal Wolsey leaves Hampton Court, loses the title of Lord Chancellor.)  It appears Englishmen pretty much do what he says. The King was mighty and powerful.

So the two Dukes (Norfolk and Suffolk) come to Cardinal Wolsey at York Place, to take back the Great Seal. Henry VIII has demoted the Cardinal once again. He's on the down slide. Watch out Cromwell.

Book of Hours, circa 1500

Then comes

 Section III of Part 2, Make or Mar -  All Hallows 1529.

Oh Hillary Mantel, this is just brilliant.

Thomas Cromwell is fully human to us now. It is All Hallows and he is in the presence of his deceased wife and kids.

 Her prayer book in hand, he walks through the prayers with them. Through the Hours with them. So tender. Oh man.

Then six paragraphs on Simonides' story, as recanted by Cicero.

This is the story of the discovery of Memory Palace remembering technique. To remember a list, walk through (in your mind) a familiar physical location and place the objects from your list along the walk, making connections.  Use different parts of your brain power to remember the list.

Cromwell is quite the remember-er. Excellent transition piece.

“Once, in Thessaly, there was a poet called Simonides. He was commissioned to appear at a banquet, given by a man called Scopas, and recite a lyric in praise of his host. Poets have strange vagaries, and in his lyric Simonides incorporated verses in praise of Castor and Pollux, the Heavenly Twins. Scopas was sulky, and said he would pay only half the fee: ‘As for the rest, get it from the Twins.’ 

A little later, a servant came into the hall. He whispered to Simonides; there were two young men outside, asking for him by name. 

He rose and left the banqueting hall. He looked around for the two young men, but he could see no one. 

As he turned back, to go and finish his dinner, he heard a terrible noise, of stone splitting and crumbling. He heard the cries of the dying, as the roof of the hall collapsed. Of all the diners, he was the only one left alive. 

The bodies were so broken and disfigured that the relatives of the dead could not identify them. But Simonides was a remarkable man. Whatever he saw was imprinted on his mind. He led each of the relatives through the ruins; and pointing to the crushed remains, he said, there is your man. In linking the dead to their names, he worked from the seating plan in his head.

It is Cicero who tells us this story. He tells us how, on that day, Simonides invented the art of memory. He remembered the names, the faces, some sour and bloated, some blithe, some bored. He remembered exactly where everyone was sitting, at the moment the roof fell in.” 

Do you get the feeling the roof is about to cave in?
 

For April, Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (Entry 0)

For April, it's Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall. 

During our always fascinating monthly discussion of what to read for next month (in terms of books mentioned as well as group dynamics), we first mentioned Mantel's Man Booker 2012 winner Bring up the Bodies. 

Then we thought we should do SOME things in life in order. Bring up the Bodies is her second book in a series. So we decided to read her first one first.

I hear you. Yes, we are a brilliant gaggle, aren't we?

Mantel's first book in this series, Wolf Hall, also won the Man Booker Prize... in 2009. 

Man.

Onto the plot of Wolf Hall.  It starts in 1500. Then jumps right into 1526. Tudor England. Henry VIII is married to Catherine of Aragon. 

 I would say SPOILER ALERT, SPOILER ALERT, SPOILER ALERT, 

But really....

Seriously?

Henry VIII wants to annul his sonless marriage to Catherine, and then marry Anne Boleyn. He has lots of people helping him figure out how to do this. And many trying to persuade him not to. I bet the book has more in it than that.

Wolf Hall was called Wulfhall back in 1520's, just FYI.

Another just FYI:  Wolf Hall was the Seymour family castle.  Even though it is the title of this book, it is not the location of the action. Need to wait for wife number 3, Jane Seymour when some of the action moves to Wolf Hall. Why did I bring this up? My 12th great-grandfather was Edward Seymour (brother to Jane Seymour.) Yes, here I am. Kiss my ring. 

I am reminded though, that, "The higher you fly, the farther you fall." Due to political scuffles, that same Edward was beheaded at the Tower of London. Also, his relative an affair with their own daughter-in-law, that marriage was annulled and the kids were declared bastards.  Family scandal BIG TIME. Three generations later Wolf Hall is in the hands of the political rivals and the Seymours move to Connecticut.  

Oh well. 

According to some Man Booker Prize info, the book's title has double meaning.  As well as being the Seymour family home, it also alludes to the old Latin saying "Man is wolf to man", which serves as a constant reminder of the dangerously opportunistic nature of the world through which Cromwell navigates.

Cromwell? 

WHO'S CROMWELL?

We are just going to have to read the book....

March Book Lunch, Garden of Evening Mists (Entry 6)

Just returned from Book Lunch at Jane's. Oh how I love love love book lunch days. You never know what is going to happen. You never know what will be said. Love the exchange of ideas, the differing viewpoints, the synergy of 14 minds revolving around a central axis of one book.

Jane (and Betty) whipped up quite a Malaysian spread. First warm nuts and wasabi peas. Then Oriental Chicken Salad (mainly chicken, but with some red bell pepper, asparagus, green onion, sesame seeds in a peanut dressing), duck tacos (these from Hawkers, a Malaysian restaurant on Mills Ave in Orlando. Who knew?), homemade Malaysia flat bread, and cut fruit. Dessert tropical sorbets and brownies.

And they dressed in authentic attire from Malaya. These gals know how to make us all feel warm and welcomed. Thank you ladies!

The discussion. Well, all agreed this was an excellently written book. Almost poetic, his prose. So many moments in these 332 pages to stop, visualize, go inward. Figure out.

What happened to Aritomo after he passed out through the garden gate?

 No concensus on this.

 He committed suicide.
He wandered into the Cameron wilderness intentionally for the remainder of his life.
He went to the high mountain church and lived with the nuns.
No one thought he returned to the Prison Camp Golden Lily to take the treasure.
No one thought he returned to Japan to garden for the Emperor. 

So was this intentional by the author, that we wouldn't know? Or were his hints there. Want to ask the author this. Maybe I will run into him someday in an elevator, and HOPEFULLY I will remember this question.

Did Yun Ling ever forgive Aritomo / the Japanese? Forgiveness is in stages, forgiveness of this depth. First an opening of the mind, an easing of the anger and the bitterness. An acceptance of her new reality. Finally forgiveness. We think it was complete. She was finally able, after 40-so years, to mail the blue envelope given to her by a dying Japanese war criminal.

What is forgiveness? See above. And when the past doesn't have that hold on you any more. You can move on, move forward.

The OED defines forgiveness as 'to grant free pardon and to give up all claim on account of an offense or debt'.  Move forward.

Did we think the tattoo was hokey? No, we liked the pulling together of Aritomo and Yun Ling, with Golden Lily and Aritomo's art.

Another theme besides forgiveness? Memory. Loosing your memories. Reconciling with your memories. How we are in charge of what we remember. Different filters. Loved the two goddesses at Magnus's Majuba garden - the goddess of Memory, named Mnenosyne, and the goddess of Forgetting, with no name. And with a face that is blurred. Which is older? Goddess of memory, as you need to have the memory before you forget it.

// Rhodesian Ridgebacks!// Several of us do have tattoos. Just saying.
// What makes you look more intently, a circular window opening or a rectangular one?
// Beautiful, intricate woodblocks shared by Rita and Marlene, as in the book.  Works of art.
// Enthusiastic history information passed around by Cathi.
// Shinto Priests.
// War is a business.
// Bird nest soup is gelatinous and gooey. A delicacy at formal dinners. Thank you Beth for sampling for us.
// Even ordinary nuts, when heated and served in a white ceramic dish, are first class.

I want to visit a Japanese garden. Soon. Now. Several have been the the Kyoto Gardens.
Not where the dragons are, that's Kimodo.
And not where you wear a silk robe, that's Kimono.
Seriously, we all growing batty?

Violence in book was appropriate. Very savage treatment of prisoners by the Japanese in Malaya and by the British in The Boer War. To live in such fear, such uncertainty every day must have intensified the joy of being alive for those choosing to stay engaged in society. Others fled to the jungles, disappeared from society.  I can't even imagine.

Contrast this book to The Buddha in the Attic (Julia Osaka), which we read a few months ago. There the Japanese women were diminished by American families. The diminished not the diminishers. A different side to the story. Same time period.

Such a worth while book to read. Highly recommended. But just don't rush through it.

Savor the author's sentences.
Savor the views he presents of human spirit, similar to Borrowed Scenery.

Jackie noted this book was elegantly and extremely carefully constructed. The author made us stop, pause, and look right where he wanted us to look. He told stories within the story to highlight points (Borrowed Scenery?). He was our guide, aiding us in contemplation.

Just like a Japanese Garden.

Bravo Tan Twan Eng!

===========

Jane's Nuts:

     1 lb of your favorite nuts

     2 Tbl. of melted butter

     1 Tbl. of brown sugar

     1 Tbl. of fresh rosemary (chopped)

     1 tsp. of kosher salt

     1 tsp. of cayenne  pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees,  spread nuts on baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes until toasted.  Combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl and mix well.  Add the nuts and toss to coat.  Serve warm.  You can freeze them and then warm them briefly in the oven or microwave before serving.  Yields 3 cups. 

This was borrowed from Jane's friend in the kitchen, Ina. 

Garden of Evening Mists (Entry 5) Aritomo... what happens next?

Did Aritomo leave at the end, to disappear into the jungles of Malaya to die?
I don't think so.
Maybe to live a new chapter of his life.

I am certain he didn't get lost in the Highlands. He was the book's hero. Super hero. He wasn't about to get lost.

Or did he return to the Japanese Emperor to design gardens? (Remember, he had just received the letter of pardon.)

His work with Yun Ling was finished. His garden at Yugiri was finished. His work at Yugiri was done. It was time for him to move on.

It was said that he was a man of the background that would finish his job. He did finish.

So was he Lao Tzu and just walked out the gate, leaving civilization. Into the wilderness?  I think this is what happened. Not sure.

And while I'm at it, was he with Golden Lily?  Is that why he left Yun Ling the map? Is that how he knew the location of her prison camp and the 'buried treasure?' If so, I absolutely do not think he left to find the treasure. No way.

Well, just thoughts.

Garden of Evening Mists (Entry 4) Some Passages

Highlighted passages.
Things that hit me while I was reading.
Page numbers are from my paperback book.

1. Memory. So  much about memory. As we sit in stillness, our minds are able to stir up memories of way past, or of recent past. Light falls on them and we can observe them with the advantage of time passed. So we might see them differently that when in the midst of the painting. Healing can happen. Understanding. Learning. Or maybe just plain acceptance. 

I post this passage first. It still resonates with me. 

(page 294) Memory is like patches of sunlight in an overcast valley, shifting with the movement of the clouds. Now and then the light will fall on a particular point in time, illuminating it for a moment before the wind seals up the gap, and the world is in shadows again.




2. Sometimes I can see sound left behind from words or music or laughter. Can't you? Not really see as in physical, but it is so real that I sense it so strongly. I see it. Here Yun Ling leaves her office for the last time. The watercolor is her sister's work. 

(page 9)  Carrying my briefcase and the watercolor, I walked out of the courtyard. In the sky above me, the last line of prayer from the mosque drifted away, leaving only silence where its echo had been. 

3. Memories again. But spoken so poetically. It's a poem Aritomo recited for Yun Ling. 

(page 16) Though the water has stopped flowing, we still hear the whisper of its name. 

4. We all know we can never totally empty ourselves of our past and start new. We must do the work to grow. Here Yun Ling reads that the Japanese gardens under Zen Buddhism's influence allowed for reflection on faith as they were less cluttered, towards emptiness. 

(page 81) I put the book down and closed my eyes. Emptiness: it appealed to me, the possibility of ridding myself of everything I had seen and heard and lived through. 

5.  From what I can tell, shakkei (borrowed scenery) generally is the concept of designing your garden to interact with the outside landscape... emphasizing, reflecting, building upon what you wish. 

(page 110) Shakkei. Aritomo never could resits employing the principles of Borrowed Scenery in everything he did, and the thought comes to me that perhaps he may have even brought it into his life. And if he did so, had there come a time when he could no longer distinguish what was real and what were only reflections in his life? And will this also happen to me in the end?

6. Reminds me of John Lennon's "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."  

(page 136) Pull every breath deep down into you. Feel your body expanding as you breathe: this is where we live, in the moments between each inhalation and exhalation. 

7. Rebirth, change, the rhythms of the seasons. Thank you Shelley.

(page 138)

I am the daughter of Earth and Water,

        And the nursling of the Sky;

I pass through the pores, of the ocean and shores; 
 I change, but I cannot die
For after the rain, when with never a stain 
 The pavilion of Heaven is bare,
And the winds and sunbeams, with their convex gleams, 
 Build up the blue dome of Air  
I silently laugh at my own cenotaph 
 And out of the caverns of rain,
Like a child from the womb, live a ghost from the tomb, 
 I arise, and unbuild it again.

8. He did it. He applied the Shakkei of Japanese gardening to our design of our spirits, of our souls.  

(page 143)  'A garden borrows from the earth, the sky, and everything around it, but you borrow from time," I said slowly. "Your memories are a form of shakkei too. You bring them in to make your life here feel less empty. Like the mountains and the clouds over your garden, you can see them, but they will always be out of reach."

9.  Mono no aware, another Japanese gardening concept. A beautiful one. The awareness of the impermanence of life. Which makes the present ever so more precious. 

(page 163) "That point in time just as the last leaf is about to drop, as the remaining petal is about to fall; that moment captures everything beautiful and sorrowful about life."

10. Aritomo knew he was to heal Yun Ling's memories. He knew he was to nurture, to teach, to connect. To draw out the memories so she could forgive the Japanese (as best she could) and forgive herself (for leaving Yun Hong.) This was Aritomo's part. When it was done, he was to move on. The garden was finished, and Yun Ling needed him no longer. 

(page 284)"I often feel I am on a ship, heading for a destination on the other side of the world. I imagine myself in that blank space, between the two points of a mapmaker's calipers."  "That empty space exists only on maps, Aritomo."  "Maps and also in memories."

11.  Another concept. The charting of our lives. Making sense of our lives. We are all trying to do it. Compassion for our fellow travelers.

(page 307)  Are all of us the same, I wonder, navigating our lives by interpreting the silences between words spoken, analyzing the returning echoes of our memory in order to chart the terrain, in order to make sense of the world around us?