So I’ve just finished The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss, which is absolutely beautiful. I recommend it. It’s about connecting with others (what else would I love), and how life, and ourselves, prevent us from that. I think my favorite part shows up about half-way through the narrative. It’s a quote from the fictional novel that centers the story.

“So many words get lost. They leave the mouth and lose their courage, wandering aimlessly until they are swept into the gutter like dead leaves. On rainy days you can hear their chorus rushing past: IwasabeautifulgirlPleasedon’tgoItoobelievemybodyismadeofglass-I’veneverlovedanyoneIthinkofmyselfasfunnyForgiveme…
       There was a time when it wasn’t uncommon to use a piece of string to guide words that otherwise might falter on the way to their destinations. Shy people carried a little bundle of string in their pockets, but people considered loudmouths had no less need for it, since those used to being overheard by everyone were often at a loss for how to make themselves heard by someone. The physical distance between two people using a string was often small; sometimes the smaller the distance, the greater the need for the string. …
      When the world grew bigger, and there wasn’t enough string to keep the things people wanted to say from disappearing into the vastness, the telephone was invented.
      Sometimes no length of string is long enough to say the thing that needs to be said. In such cases all the string can do, in whatever its form, is conduct a person’s silence.”

And the whole story is like this. It has these gorgeous descriptions of love and the way people interact with one another. Ultimately it describes the need to connect with others and the way that it can happen. That statement probably says more about me as the reader than it does about the author and the writing, but it’s what I think. And it’s what I wanted to share. So if you see me with a little ball of string, now you’ll understand why…