Download PDF A Thousand and a Thousand Years (2012: Its Your Choice... and Mine)

What can be said at all can be said clearly. One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other. He caught glimpses of everything, but saw nothing. Certain old men prefer to rise at dawn, taking a cold bath and a long walk with an empty stomach and otherwise mortifying the flesh. They then point with pride to these practices as the cause of their sturdy health and ripe years; the truth being that they are hearty and old, not because of their habits, but in spite of them. The reason we find only robust persons doing this thing is that it has killed all the others who have tried it.

Government is too big and too important to be left to the politicians. Ars longa, vita brevis. There's nothing in the middle of the road but a yellow stripe and dead armadillos. Every man desires to live long, but no man would be old. Most people today still believe, perhaps unconsciously, in the heliocentric universe What's another word for Thesaurus? It is now possible for a flight attendant to get a pilot pregnant. Never burn a penny candle looking for a halfpenny. Your theory is crazy, but it's not crazy enough to be true.

Our chiefs said 'Done,' and I did not deem it; Our seers said 'Peace,' and it was not peace; Earth will grow worse till men redeem it, And wars more evil, ere all wars cease. One can promise actions, but not feelings, for the latter are involuntary. He who promises to love forever or hate forever or be forever faithful to someone is promising something that is not in his power. It's not that I'm afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens. Remember that time is money. I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.

When smashing monuments, save the pedestals — they always come in handy. Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved. As for the future, your task is not to forsee it, but to enable it. We have a firm commitment to Europe; we are a part of Europe. You can build a throne with bayonets, but you can't sit on it for long. If homosexuality is a disease, let's all call in queer to work.

Outside of the killings, DC has one of the lowest crime rates in the country. We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. That man is an Euclidian point: One of the basic tenets of Zen Buddhism is that there is no way to characterize what Zen is.

No matter what verbal space you try to enclose Zen in, it resists, and spills over We've moved away from being a culture of people who think about movies to one made up of people who believe that spouting a list of preferences is the same as registering an opinion. We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately" - Benjamin Franklin Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft.

That will just be a completely unintentional side effect. Sex is only dirty if it's done right. He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you. I really believe that if there's any kind of God, he wouldn't be in any one of us — not you, not me, but just this space in between. If there's some magic in this world, it must be in the attempt of understanding someone else, sharing something. Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.

The Enlightened take things Lightly. The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs. A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct. This every sister of the Bene Gesserit knows. One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves.

The process never ends until we die. And, the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility. If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'Thank You', that would suffice. Security is mostly a superstition Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. For myself, I am an optimist — it does not seem to be much use being anything else. I have never let my schooling get in the way of my education. I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State.

My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death. What we cannot speak of we must pass over in silence. If your morals make you dreary, depend upon it, they are wrong. I do not say give them up, for they may be all you have, but conceal them like a vice lest they spoil the lives of better and simpler people. Some mornings it just doesn't seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps. Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.

Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education. That virtue we appreciate is as much ours as anothers. We see so much only as we possess. We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: They were nothing like the French people I had imagined.

If anything, they were too kind, too generous and too knowledgable in the fields of plumbing and electricity. I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time. Jackie Biskupski is running for a seat in the Utah Legislature, and she's attracting a lot of attention because she's a lesbian. Her Republican opponent, Dan Alderson, is a staunch Mormon, and is running a negative ad campaign calling her lifestyle abnormal and deviant.

His six wives agree. Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind. Ring out a slowly dying cause, And ancient forms of party strife; Ring in the nobler modes of life, With sweeter manners, purer laws. Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense. All of humanity is in peril of extinction if each one of us does not dare, now and henceforth, always to tell only the truth, and all the truth, and to do so promptly — right now.

Truth alone will endure; all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time. True Love in this differs from gold and clay, That to divide is not to take away. Love is like understanding, that grows bright, Gazing on many truths. Dignity does not come in possessing honors, but in deserving them. There may be love without jealousy, but there is none without fear. Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.

There is another theory which states that this has already happened. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong. Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic. Men do not differ much about what things they will call evils; they differ enormously about what evils they will call excusable.

I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by. All the ill that is in us comes from fear, and all the good from love. In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good thing, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any fellow human being let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.

My years are not advancing as fast as you might think. The things to do are: If my poetry aims to achieve anything, it's to deliver people from the limited ways in which they see and feel. To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age. Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength. Misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than even malice and wickedness. At all events, the two latter are of less frequent occurrence. Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim.

If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can make the world safe for diversity. True love is inexhaustible; the more you give, the more you have. I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance. Treat a person as he is, and he will remain as he is. Treat him as he could be, and he will become what he should be. What a man believes may be ascertained, not from his creed, but from the assumptions on which he habitually acts.

There can be no Friendship where there is no Freedom. Friendship loves a free Air, and will not be penned up in streight and narrow Enclosures. Careful the things you say, children will listen. Guide them along the way, children will see and learn. Children may not obey, but children will look to you for which way to turn; to learn what to be! Careful before you say "Listen to Me. The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom. Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.

Ethics and Aesthetics are one. An amicable divorce is like a ventilated condom; it just doesn't work. An interesting thing has happened since San Francisco started granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples: Even though there are thousands of gay and lesbian couples affirming their love for and commitment to each other, my marriage — my affirmation of love and commitment to my wife — isn't threatened at all. As a matter of fact, the only people who can really "threaten" my marriage are the two of us. It must be so humiliating to have such a public break-up. Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

Just because it's old doesn't mean you have to read it. March Truth gains more even by the errors of one who, with due study and preparation, thinks for himself, than by the true opinions of those who only hold them because they do not suffer themselves to think. Meanwhile, never flinch, never weary, never despair. The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make heaven of Hell, and a hell of Heaven. That can make life a garden.

I want the understanding which bringeth peace. I'm for justice, no matter who it's for or against. Try to be happy, because you may not see tomorrow. There is someone this morning, who didn't wake up, who will never see this day. Try to feel lucky that this is not you. That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding. He whose inclination prompts him to cultivate your friendship of his own accord, will love you more than one whom you have been at pains to attach to you.

When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love, and in him, he yields to his impulses, indulges in the lowest form of pleasure, and behaves in the end like an animal in satisfying his vices. And it all comes from lying to others and to yourself. For it is impossible for a man to begin to learn what he has a conceit that he already knows. Overcome fear, behold wonder.

You may quote me. Lewis There is no sincerer love than the love of food. Great speech is impassioned, small speech cantankerous. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. No matter how friendly and even-tempered the beast, one is affected by every twitch and grunt. Even when you make a tax form out on the level, you don't know when it's through if you are a crook or a martyr. Skinner The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off.

The eyes of love, instead, see all of us as one. Chesterton Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped. We carry the seeds of the one or the other about with us in our minds wherever we go. Happiness never decreases by being shared. Take it and copy it. Hanlon May The month of May was come, when every lusty heart beginneth to blossom, and to bring forth fruit; for like as herbs and trees bring forth fruit and flourish in May, in likewise every lusty heart that is in any manner a lover, springeth and flourisheth in lusty deeds.

For it giveth unto all lovers courage, that lusty month of May. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.

Travers The integral vision embodies an attempt to take the best of both worlds, ancient and modern. But that demands a critical stance willing to reject unflinchingly the worst of both as well. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. Mencken Love me for love's sake, that evermore thou may'st love on, through love's eternity.

I cleave to no system. I am a true seeker. Err and err and err again but less and less and less. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves. Well, new to me. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. Gurdjieff The difference between a hooker and a ho ain't nothin' but a fee.

That little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative. Clement Stone We all have ability. The difference is how we use it. When nothing is done, nothing is left undone. Man's most valuable trait is a judicious sense of what not to believe. Toynbee Seek always to do some good, somewhere.

Every man has to seek in his own way to realize his true worth. You must give some time to your fellow man. Even if it's a little thing, do something for those who need help, something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it. The place to be happy is here. The time to be happy is now. The way to be happy is to make others so.

Ingersoll Love loves to love love. But the real great man is the man who makes every man feel great. Chesterton I'm not a prettier everywoman. I am an everywoman that they clean up awfully well for TV. Even philosophers wish for them. Those who write against it want to have the glory of having written well; and those who read it desire the glory of having read it. I who write this have perhaps this desire, and perhaps those who will read it Now we have some hope of making progress.

Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. They offer to give up their lives so that we can be free. It is, remarkably, their gift to us. And all they ask for in return is that we never send them into harm's way unless it is absolutely necessary. Will they ever trust us again? Diplomats tell lies to journalists and then believe what they read.

I could'a had class. I could'a been a contender. When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Or else as if the world were wholly fair, but that these eyes of men are dense and dim, and have not power to see it as it is: I know it sounds nonsense, but, I mean, you can't just say there is no such thing. The Might is there, in the bad half of people, and you can't neglect it. You can't cut it out but you might be able to direct it, if you see what I mean, so that it was useful instead of bad. White in The Once and Future King You can't expect to wield supreme executive power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!

Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children — not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women — not merely peace in our time but peace for all time. Kennedy Moderate strength is shown in violence, supreme strength is shown in levity. Chesterton Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone.

For this brave old earth must borrow its mirth, But has trouble enough of its own. He is satisfied with that, for he sees that he was not mistaken and that he only failed to see all sides. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom. Spurgeon It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.

For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern. It is part and parcel of our knowledge and obscures our insight only when it holds that the understanding given by it is the only kind there is. I don't know when — but just saying it could even make it happen. It is also commonly translated as " Called or uncalled, God is present.

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts For too long we have gotten by in a society that says the only thing right is to get by and the only thing wrong is to get caught. Character is doing what's right when nobody is looking Watts A man should be upright, not kept upright.

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer. It is not only more effective; it is also vastly more intelligent.

Mencken No man who has once heartily and wholly laughed can be altogether irreclaimably bad. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassions, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair. September There is no sudden entrance into Heaven. Slow is the ascent by the path of Love. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff — I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy. Salinger in The Catcher in the Rye The silence often of pure innocence persuades when speaking fails. I like not only to be loved, but also to be told that I am loved. I am not sure that you are of the same mind. But the realm of silence is large enough beyond the grave.

This is the world of light and speech, and I shall take leave to tell you that you are very dear. The beggar, on the other hand, falls to his knees at the drop of a hat and scrapes the floor to anyone he deems to be higher; but at the same time, he demands that someone lower than him scrape the floor for him. There is all the difference in the world. It is impossible to say what that possibility is. I think it has something to do with the energy of love Something in him so loves the world that he gives himself to the laws of gravity and chance.

Far from flying with the angels, he traces with the fidelity of a seismograph needle the state of the solid bloody landscape. His house is dangerous and finite, but he is at home in the world. He can love the shape of human beings, the fine and twisted shapes of the heart. It is good to have among us such men, such balancing monsters of love. Wells At least two thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity, idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political idols.

A hard cold wisdom is required, too, for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness without wisdom invariably accomplishes evil. It seems to be derived from this statement attributed to a specific author: Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. It may be important to great thinkers to examine the world, to explain and despise it.

But I think it is only important to love the world, not to despise it, not for us to hate each other, but to be able to regard the world and ourselves and all beings with love, admiration and respect. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects. To that end each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.

We must each respect others even as we respect ourselves. I just have something inside me that tells me that there is a problem, and I have got to do something about it. I think that is what I would call the God in me. All of us have a God in us, and that God is the spirit that unites all life, everything that is on this planet.

Vanessa Carlton - A Thousand Miles

If you're alive, it isn't. There is no try. The Empire Strikes Back These children that you spit on as they try to change their worlds are immune to your consultations. They're quite aware of what they're going through If that is granted, all else follows. You've just got to keep the faith. The game is not over until the last out. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.

I'm against the misuse of God. Huxley We're just being ourselves and having fun playing baseball. The biggest thing is when people look at our team, they can see that we're having a lot of fun. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them, changes both the maker and the destination. November The progress of the intellect is to the clearer vision of causes, which neglects surface differences.

To the poet, to the philosopher, to the saint, all things are friendly and sacred, all events profitable, all days holy, all men divine.

A Thousand Rivers

It places me on a far higher plane than any politician. Bush The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you've got it made. Of shoes — and ships — and sealing wax — Of cabbages — and Kings — And why the Sea is boiling hot — And whether pigs have wings. It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another.

I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind. Silence is deep as Eternity; speech is shallow as Time. Anyone who believes in God and the Last Day should entertain his guest generously. And anyone who believes in God and the Last Day should say what is good or keep quiet.

There must merely be the silent observation of a fact. Krishnamurti Every now and then a clear harmonic cry gave new suggestions of a tune that would someday be the only tune in the world and would raise men's souls to joy. The first is imperative and the second is disastrous. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortunes; but great minds rise above them. When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.

A person can almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude. My optimism, then, does not rest on the absence of evil, but on a glad belief in the preponderance of good and a willing effort always to cooperate with the good, that it may prevail. For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror which we are barely able to endure and are awed because it serenely disdains to annihilate us.

Each single angel is terrifying. I am more awed by those who struggle to make one small difference after another. How lovely that everyone, great and small, can make their contribution toward introducing justice straightaway And you can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness! One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. Chesterton From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring, Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.

The Tree that was withered shall be renewed, and he shall plant it in the high places, and the City shall be blessed. Sing all ye people! Tolkien From The Lord of the Rings: In the winter season, for seven days of calm, Alcyone broods over her nest on the surface of the waters while the sea-waves are quiet.

When everything is lost, and all seems darkness, then comes the new life and all that is needed. Saraswwathi tells the story of her Tamil family in the midst of the horrors of the war. Horrible things happen and the family experiences loss and brutality. So brutal are the acts against her that she can easily become a Tiger and kill her enemies without hesitation. The violence and sadness, the loss of life depicted here reminded me of how I felt while reading The Almond Tree.

Parts of the book were difficult to read - graphic in detail but the writing is just so good. Towards the end of the book I held my breath wondering if I had guessed what would happen. I did and it was more than heartbreaking even though I knew what was coming. No side is portrayed as right or wrong; each group of people equally suffers atrocities. Even in the grief in the end there is love and a hopeful look to the future. I don't know what more to say except - wow!

View all 19 comments. Sep 25, Michael rated it really liked it Shelves: This is a moving saga of two families caught up in the civil war in Sri Lanka between the largely Buddhist Sinhalese majority and the largely Muslim Tamil minority. It is beautifully written, full of lyrical portrayals of daily life amid the beauty of the land and sea and flora and fauna of this island nation. The sensuous world of food, colorful clothes, and family traditions of fishing and commerce as painted by two girls growing up in loving families gives way to the fears wrought by smolderi This is a moving saga of two families caught up in the civil war in Sri Lanka between the largely Buddhist Sinhalese majority and the largely Muslim Tamil minority.

The sensuous world of food, colorful clothes, and family traditions of fishing and commerce as painted by two girls growing up in loving families gives way to the fears wrought by smoldering prejudices between peoples exploding into pervasive violence. A doomed teen love relationship between the cultures is poignantly portrayed. Tamil children are tragically taken up into guerilla training. A girl in the Tamil family is raped and gets radicalized enough to join and fight with the insurgent Tamil Tigers. The Sinhalese family takes the opportunity to emigrate to California, facing a new kind of alienation there.

Years later, the narrator and her sister return to take up the challenge of building a new society founded in hope and understanding. I had only limited understanding of this war based on books by Ondaatje and news accounts over the decades. For other GR readers in the same boat the Wiki article on the civil war can provide some help. For 25 years, from to , the intermittent violent conflict resulting in thousand deaths.

These are ancient peoples with distinct languages, cultures, and traditions. The British colonial government before independence contributed to setting up the war by policies favoring the majority Sinhalese. The Tamil Tigers resorted to terrorist extremes in their push for independence, while the Sinhalese dominated government often resorted to genocidal brutality. The Indian government and the UN tried to intervene, but their efforts were usually ineffectual, and the war finally ended through military conquest of the Tamil forces by the Sri Lankan government.

The book stands above such details and speaks to the power of family bonds to instill the drive for life in their youth sufficient to navigate the forces of hate in the world and forge solutions borne of love. View all 15 comments. Aug 11, Mary rated it it was amazing Shelves: I try to explain. There are no martyrs here. It is a war between equally corrupt forces. This is Sri Lanka during the Civil War , but it could have been many countries, and the Tamils and Sinhalese could have been numerous ethnic groups.

Young boys have always perished for causes they barely understand; women have always been taken and broken. In my arrogance I expected less from this pastel colo I try to explain. In my arrogance I expected less from this pastel colored debut, and I was proven wonderfully wrong. She tells the story from the perspective of two girls from opposing ethnic groups whose tragic fates will mirror each other, as will those thousand mirrors upon a thousand and more unnamed people. The sound of pure and absolute anguish breaking out from each of us who has paid a price to the demons of war.

A sound forged in the lungs of the mothers whose sons have died unnamed in the fields, the fathers whose daughters have gone to fight. A sound to make the war makers quake and flee like the ancient demons, taking with them their weapons, their land mines, their silver-tongued rhetoric, their nationalism, their martyrs, and sacred Buddhist doctrines, the whole pile of stinking bullshit. View all 3 comments. It is always hard for me to read a book that talks about immigration. Living in a world of literature where the subject of immi-emi and every sort of integration has been talked about so much, I am always a little weary of picking up a book which yet again comes back to the same American-South Asian dichotomy.

Moreover, when a writer who has never really been to the home country chooses to write "authentically" about it, it usually ends up in being a parade of exoticized and over-used situations It is always hard for me to read a book that talks about immigration. Moreover, when a writer who has never really been to the home country chooses to write "authentically" about it, it usually ends up in being a parade of exoticized and over-used situations of nostalgia read Jhumpa Lahiri's latest to know what I am talking about. So, I had met Island of a Thousand Mirrors a number of times at various bookstores, somehow or the other the book snaking its way into my hands but I consciously had kept it back telling myself "I have read similar books".

However, it must be like those love stories where the hero and the beloved keep meeting till they realize the universe is conspiring to get them together. In my case the universe was the people I work for who forced me into the same room with this book which refused to let go of me. Thus, began my slow acquaintance with Island of a Thousand Mirrors.

She wills to trace the history of two families, one Sinhala and one Tamil beginning at the moment of inception, quite akin to a Rushdie in Midnight's Children or a Marquez in A Hundred Years of Solitude. However, unlike both these stalwarts, she quickly subsumes her narrative within the more narrow space of the contradictory consciousness of two young girls, seeming to be the schizoid parts of a fragmented psyche.

Set against the war torn backdrop of picturesque Sri Lanka, Yasodhara and Saraswathi represent the two sides of the looking glass. Just as in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass where everything has an inverted double, Yasodhara and Saraswathi's stories are the lateral inversions of each other. Both of them are stranded into roles that they are forced to fulfill, one through exile and the other through war. Caught within the grand rhetoric of Nationalism and belonging, home and exile the most beautiful lines in the novel encapsulate this as "Arteries, streams, and then rivers of Tamils flow out of the city.

Behind them they leave It is a list that stays bitter on the tongue, giving birth to fantasies of Retribution, Partition, Secession" both the protagonists struggle to find a semblance of clarity within the spectral clear charts of their personal histories that had been drawn for them by others. Both are fighting a war that was never hers, just like the thousands in the island who are sacrificed in the name of the greater cause, the Greater war.

Munaweera represents the War in both its absence through the eyes of the American exiled Yasodhara and her family who listen to the news with bated breath and consume themselves in impotent rage and its presence through the breakdown of Saraswathi and her re-creating herself, not quite wholly so, as a rebel fighter. However, unlike other works on the War, there is no machismo, no grand truths, no clarion call of justice, honour or the most illusive of them, glory. And most importantly it is not a masculine war. Every turn of phrase or of event in the novel is guided by a female figure, let it be the matriarch Sylvia Sunethra who heroically saves her Tamil tenants when the mob comes to claim them or Mala who moulds her own story, ironically freed from the constraints of respectability because of her dark colour.

Even though both Yasodhara and Saraswathi are hued as the protagonists, it is these litany of women characters, from the hunchbacked Alice to the rebellious and beautiful Lanka to the shy Luxmi who create the myriad images on the silver-backed landscape of these two main characters giving them both the depth and the reflective surfaces of their selves. It is an unapologetically female novel and there is a marked absence of refreshingly so prominent male characters, overturning the very common assumption of War novels being intrinsically male and women in these just play the part of spectators or worse as reduced to the roles of waiting in the proverbial interim room of reflected glory of their male counterparts.

The finale does leave you wanting for more in its predictability and staccato nature, but then again life does have an uncanny way of ending with a whimper right? When I met Nayomi during a seminar at my workplace and was talking to her about her book, she told me how difficult it was to get it published as most of the American publishers dished it saying a woman shouldn't write war novels well not in these exact words but in similar attitude at least.

I didn't understand the comment then. But after reading her novel, I think I do. Nayomi's novel doesn't talk of war as a moment etched in history, viewed through the comfortable lens of the "common good". It doesn't try and justify war as the means to an end or criticize it in a noble, scholastic sort of way.

Instead it tell you a story of recklessness, horror, misguided truths and hypocritical stances, it narrates to you the stories that everyone knows but nobody talks about, much like the spoiling of Saraswathi's friend. It creeps into you in the dead of the night and takes you by force and while you writhe and try and free yourself of its sweat and grime, it opens you up, thrusts itself into you and breaks you, leaving the stink of its existence deep within you much longer after it had gone.

Jul 12, Diane Barnes rated it really liked it. The adjectives "brutal" and "beautiful" aren't normally used together, but they describe this book. Like others, I had no idea that Sri Lanka experienced a 25 year long civil war, killing over 80, people. This book chronicles that war on the lives of two families.

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It begins in the island before the war, with lovely descriptions of the people and their customs, their food, and the natural world that surrounded them. It ends with the loss of not only families, but an entire way of life. Yes, th The adjectives "brutal" and "beautiful" aren't normally used together, but they describe this book. Yes, the beauty makes the brutality so much worse. One of those books that is hard to read in parts. I will never understand why people continue to hate each other so much. View all 4 comments. Jan 30, Smitha rated it really liked it Shelves: A powerful story told in a lyrical manner.

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Have read a couple of Sri Lankan authors before, and being from South India, With Sri Lanka close by, could not escape knowing about the civil war that has been ripping apart the country. This is the first time I am reading the cultural and political history written in a simple and lucid manner. I don't know who is in the right, who is in the wrong.

Often, it is both parties both ways. But I do know that any civil war affects utmost the common person who A powerful story told in a lyrical manner. But I do know that any civil war affects utmost the common person who is least interested in strife. Leaving aside the political aspect, this story let me peek into the cultural and religious facets of ordinary Sri Lankan life. I enjoyed the peek, but abhorred the violence and bloodshed.

This book narrates the lives of Singhalese as well as Tamilian families who were sacrificed in the wake of the civil war. The strong female characters are bonus materials. May 31, Lilisa rated it it was amazing Shelves: Powerful, mesmerizing, searing — these are words that come to mind having just put down this novel by first-time author Nayomi Munaweera, which I received from Goodreads. So glad I did, or else I might not ordinarily have come across it, which would definitely have been my loss.

The novel traces the lives of two young women and their families — Yasodhara, a Sinhalese and Saraswathie, a Tamil. Their lives play out very differently and culminate as paths collide in Sri Lanka's tragic, brutal war arena. The novel is not for the faint of heart — the realities of war are front and center, emotions are raw and raging, and brutalities graphic — war is not pretty and the consequences are devastating. But before all that, Sri Lanka is the land of both the Sinhalese and Tamils living side by side.

One can almost feel, touch and experience the warm lap of ocean waters, the loamy feel of the land, the exotic aroma of bursting mangoes and the taste and texture of red rice and coconut fish curry. Every single word has a reason for being on the page — an amazing piece of literature. A highly recommended read and one that leaves a lasting impression.

View all 8 comments. What a story, what a writer! If you don't know much about the civil war in Sri Lanka, you could do a lot worse than start here. Aug 12, Girish rated it really liked it Shelves: The book chooses 2 narrators one on each side - the eldest daughters of one Sinhala family Yasodhara and one Tamil family Saraswati. Their stories and their parents generation entwined with the indelible historical events in Sri L "I shall wake up from these long decades of war and begin to see what we can do in peace, what sort of creature we are when the mask of lion or tiger fall from us" The book is as intense as it gets in one of the most balanced portrayals of the Sri Lankan struggle.

Their stories and their parents generation entwined with the indelible historical events in Sri Lanka hold you mesmerised and like a grenade, blows your heart into a thousand pieces. It could have been 2 books but then all it takes is a mirror. The novel is written beautifully - simple enough prose with beautiful choice of metaphors and then the terror with no holds barred. The horrors perpetuated by both the sides in the meaningless war Is any war meaningful? And the book maintains it is neutrality. Having grown up on news broadcasts and movies, I never had bothered to read more on the Sri Lankan war history.

Island of a Thousand Mirrors

This book made me read up a lot more and I am thankful for that. The characters are well developed and it is tough to believe it is the author's first book. The books ends on a note of hope and isn't hope all that one can ask for? Jan 23, Claire McAlpine rated it it was amazing Shelves: In I read Nayomi Munaweera's second novel What Lies Between Us and it was one of my Top Reads of , a novel of a young woman trying to adjust to life in a new country, though still haunted by both the beauty and tragedy of her past, her childhood in Sri Lanka.

Island of a Thousand Mirrors similarly evokes the childhoods and family life of two families living in the same house. The house is owned by the matriarch Sylvia Sumethra and her husband, The Judge who are Sinhala people an Indo-Ay In I read Nayomi Munaweera's second novel What Lies Between Us and it was one of my Top Reads of , a novel of a young woman trying to adjust to life in a new country, though still haunted by both the beauty and tragedy of her past, her childhood in Sri Lanka.

The house is owned by the matriarch Sylvia Sumethra and her husband, The Judge who are Sinhala people an Indo-Ayran ethnic group originally from northern India, now native to and forming the majority of the population of Sri Lanka, mostly Buddhist and upstairs they rent to an extended Tamil family a culturally and linguistically distinct ethnic group native to Sri Lanka, mostly Hindu.

It is a time when they live side by side in relative peace, although there are prejudices and intolerances at the adult level, attitudes that are not understood by the children and multiple generations of children will grow up, some capable of bridging those differences, until violence, heartache and tragedy taint them.

Sylvia's daughter Visaka grows up in the house and develops a fearful crush on the son of the family upstairs, later when she is married and gives birth to one of our narrators, her daughter Yasodhara too will befriend Shiva, the next generation son of the family living upstairs. Her father Nishan is a twin, the lighter skinned one, his sister Mala, despaired of by her mother Beatrice when she was young, perceived as being unlikely to marry, to be rejected, until she finds love without the interference of her family, something of a scandal.

There is silence and then the familiar smack of Beatrice Muriel's palm against her forehead. In her opinion, love marriages border on the indecent. They signify a breakdown of propriety, a giving in to the base instincts exhibited by the lower castes and foreigners. She believes marriages are too important to be relegated to the randomness of chance meetings and hormonal longings. They must be conducted with precision, calculated by experts, negotiated by a vast network of relations who will verify the usual things: Yasodara recalls the moment she was forced to recognise the age old prejudices that perpetuated the myth that she and Shiva were different.

We had been talking in our own shared language, that particular blur of Sinhala, Tamil and English much like what our mothers used in the early days, when suddenly my grandmother, her attention telescoped on us, pins him like an insect. Her iced voice, incredulous, "Are you teaching my granddaughter Tamil? He rips his hand from mine, turns to run. The camera in my father's hand clicks shut.

Yasodara and her family will move to America and start over. Her family have already lost two brothers to war and live in fear of losing a third or worse, something terrible happening to the girls. Sara and her sister are still in school, she hopes to become a teacher, but there have been white van abductions and despicable acts of violence and lynchings, which put stress on the family. There is pressure to join the Tamil Tigers, a militant group fighting for independence. There are roofless, bombed-out houses with bullet-splattered walls and empty, eyeless rooms everywhere.

I hate these houses, they look like dead bodies or like mad people, laughing through their openmouthed doorways. I want to know what this place looked like before, when all the houses were whole, when people lived in them and cared about them and grew vegetables in front of them, flowers even. Munaweera writes exquisitely of the island of Sri Lanka, in lyrical prose that takes the reader inside the family experiences, evoking all the senses, the aroma of the cuisine, the fear and excitement of young, forbidden love, the pain of heartbreak, the fear of palpable tension as sisters walk to school, sometimes witnessing images that will stain their minds and revisit their dreams for years.

Through the forced changes political events put on the families, we become witness to the struggle to adapt, in some the nostalgia for the past will lead them back there, in others, it is as if it never was, they have banished nostalgia and reminiscing from their minds and will do all they can to keep it from their children, not realising that they too will grow up and question their parents origins and be curious to know that part of themselves that provokes questions by others, highlighting the obvious, gaping hole in their identity.

I knew it would be good, it is a prize winning novel and deservedly so, it is endearing, evocative and sensual, touching on both the best of humanity and it's most despicable, unpalatable horrors and the effect that exposure to those horrors can have on the innocent. Jun 10, Anna C rated it really liked it. I am beyond grateful to have received a free copy. This book is stunning, and I am in awe of Munaweera's descriptive powers.

The Sinhala Yashodhara escapes to Los Angeles and transforms from a shattered refugee to a normal American, while the Tamil Saraswathi becomes a child soldier. Between these two diverging narrators, Munaweera admirably shows a painful piece of Sri Lanka's history. Munaweera's Sri Lanka feels like a fantasy kingdom. From the first pages of this novel, the reader is bombarded with thick clouds of cardamon and cumin, drowned in the endless shades of green and blue, and lost in the sensuous beauty of the beaches and the ocean.

NoViolet Bulawayo called this prose good enough to eat, and I have to agree. Strangely enough, Munaweera's candy prose is both the book's greatest strength, and the biggest hurdle it must overcome. Her languid descriptions work wonderfully in Yasodhara's expat life of beaches, new clothes, and nascent romances. So, so moving and touched my core values Lists with This Book. Oct 02, Denise rated it did not like it.

I adore Donald Miller for his self-deprecating humor and poetic insights. However, reading him a few years after my initial infatuation I seriously thought I had a chance with him when he posed for a picture with me at a book signing , I find myself unsettled with his conclusions mostly because they are fluff. I want to commend his resurrection of the concept of our lives as stories. I think many youth today need to hear that. But the bulk of what he writes is Oprah-esque admonitions to serve othe I adore Donald Miller for his self-deprecating humor and poetic insights. But the bulk of what he writes is Oprah-esque admonitions to serve others.

Preaching social ethics is fine, but not sufficient for a book on life as story. A metaphor of C. Lewis' describes three philosophical questions as three instructions to a fleet of ships. For the ships to know how to stay shipshape and avoid sinking would illustrate individual ethics. Social ethics includes how to avoid bumping into each other. But most importantly, the question most modern philosophers never touch is the summum bonum, the greatest good: Some say that service is the highest good.

Peter Kreeft, in "Three Philosophies of Life" comments from the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible that it is not sufficient: We all know what happens when the blind lead the blind: It is all very well to prefer altruism to egotism, to work for the good of others, but what is the good of others? Once I find the summum bonum, it must be shared, yes, but I cannot share it before I find it. But I will not praise him for it.

Jun 29, Scott Welch rated it really liked it. At times, he had me frustrated with his writing about himself, and sometimes he hooked me with how he applied his stories to the point of the book. The 4 stars is an average: It really got me thinking and I have probably thought about this book everyday since I read it at some point or other. But, I gave it a 3 for the rambletastic ridiculousness of his stories all about himself. It is worth the read. My wife is reading it now.

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I especially liked the story about the family that realized that the story their family was living wasn't as excited as the life of rebellion their daughter was experimenting with. So they did something drastic. You have to read it to find out what Jun 01, Daniel rated it liked it Shelves: This is a Don Miller book. Hence, -Charming anecdotes from his life Don meets Steve, who wants to shoot a movie based off Blue Like Jazz, Don doesn't like them changing his life to appeal to moviegoers, Don realizes he is living a lame story, Don embarks to rectify, Don dates a girl, Don hikes a mountain, Don bikes across the country, Don matures.

He's unflaggingly artless in the This is a Don Miller book. He's unflaggingly artless in the way he presents himself always erring on the side of too-pathetic. Don was dissatisfied because he was not living a story definition incoming whereby a character Applying story framework to the way we view the world is right perception. Jan 01, C. After getting past the first 8 chapters, "A Million Miles" started getting very thought provoking and I was quite challenged by some of the ideas that Miller shares.

The idea of creating a story, taking the skills and abilities that God has given you and doing something with them, rather than waiting for something to happen to you, has struck a chord. As a caveat, that there are Rob Bell-esque tones in here, and I disagree with some of the theology that Miller spouts throughout the book. However After getting past the first 8 chapters, "A Million Miles" started getting very thought provoking and I was quite challenged by some of the ideas that Miller shares. However, you don't throw the baby out with the bathwater and I have read this book much as I would any secular story - testing everything against the Truth of Scripture and using discernment.

In the end, I came away with several good lessons and lots to think about. Oct 03, Karen L. I loved this book. I listened to the author reading,audio version, which I highly recommend. He has a wonderful conversational style of writing. I liked his honesty. He shares stories from his life freely, sharing both his good and bad choices through both humorous as well as serious stories.

Some of the stories caused me to belly laugh and others, like the death of his friend's wife made me sob. He shares about his father leaving when he was a child and about his finding his father later as an a I loved this book. He shares about his father leaving when he was a child and about his finding his father later as an adult.

He writes about how our lives are stories and that we need to think of them this way so that we make our lives truly good stories. He has definately inspired me to make sure that my life is a "good story. View all 3 comments. Aug 06, girl writing rated it it was amazing. I've stumbled upon several blogs all having to do with improving quality of life by being unconventional.

While reading the Blog of Impossible Things, I came across this book. With the magic of e-books, I had the book in my hands and read by the end of the evening. I laughed out loud at the first page and cried at the last. What an unique approach to living a meaningful life I wondered if a person coul I've stumbled upon several blogs all having to do with improving quality of life by being unconventional.

I wondered if a person could plan a story for his life and live it intentionally. And, Miller has some pretty amazing friends Miller includes God and his religious views in the book. It is not preachy or pushy, it is just part of who he is. And one more quote: The world needs for us to have courage, Robert McKee says at the end of his book. The world needs for us to write something better.

I was happy for her and truthfully, jealous. Then she laughed and said maybe it was just the wine. I recommend this book and would love to discuss with anyone who reads it! May 14, Kevin Schneider rated it it was amazing. Quotes from the book But joy costs pain. We are suckered into it. We are brainwashed, I think. And the commercial convinces us we will only be content if we have a car with forty-seven airbags. And so we begin our story of buying a Volvo, only to repeat the story with a new weed eater and then a new home stereo.

And this can go on for a lifetime. When the credits roll, we wonder what we did with our lives, and what was the meaning. You can either get bitter, or better. I chose to get better. Half the commercials on television are selling us something that will make life easier. There is no conflict man can endure that will not produce a blessing.

Jan 25, Christine rated it really liked it Shelves: But Donald Miller is travelling with me in a freakish parallel universe. This hook, life as a story, snagged my inner writer, pulling me through the book as Miller sharpens his point. The book begins as Miller is approached to edit Blue Like Jazz into a movie script, turning his mainly internal meanderings into events that happen to a character named Don.

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