This is something which I had read
in the fourth book of Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Series. I was pondering over
something when it just came back to me. And I love the title of the book :)
“He said airily, "I want you to tell me a story.''
She
looked out over the kale and pondered.
"All
right,'' she said, "it's only a short one. And not funny like yours, but ...
Anyway.''
She
looked down. Arthur could feel that it was one of those sorts of moments. The
air seemed to stand still around them, waiting. Arthur wished that the air
would go away and mind its own business.
"When
I was a kid,'' she said. "These sort of stories always start like this, don't
they, 'When I was a kid ...'Anyway. This is the bit where the girl suddenly
says, 'When I was a kid' and starts to unburden herself. We have got to that
bit. When I was a kid I had this picture hanging over the foot of my bed ...
What do you think of it so far?"
"I
like it. I think it's moving well. You're getting the bedroom interest in nice
and early. We could probably do with some development with the picture."
"It
was one of those pictures that children are supposed to like,'' she said, "but
don't. Full of endearing little animals doing endearing things, you know?"
"I
know. I was plagued with them too. Rabbits in waistcoats."
"Exactly.
These rabbits were in fact on a raft, as were assorted rats and owls. There may
even have been a reindeer."
"On
the raft."
"On
the raft. And a boy was sitting on the raft."
"Among
the rabbits in waistcoats and the owls and the reindeer."
"Precisely
there. A boy of the cheery gypsy ragamuffin variety."
"Ugh."
"The
picture worried me, I must say. There was an otter swimming in front of the
raft, and I used to lie awake at night worrying about this otter having to pull
the raft, with all these wretched animals on it who shouldn't even be on a
raft, and the otter had such a thin tail to pull it with I thought it must hurt
pulling it all the time. Worried me. Not badly, but just vaguely, all the time.
"Then
one day --- and remember I'd been looking at this picture every night for years
--- I suddenly noticed that the raft had a sail. Never seen it before. The
otter was fine, he was just swimming along.''
She
shrugged.
"Good
story?'' she said.
"Ends
weakly,'' said Arthur, "leaves the audience crying 'Yes, but what of it?' Fine
up till there, but needs a final sting before the credits."
Fenchurch
laughed and hugged her legs.
"It
was just such a sudden revelation, years of almost unnoticed worry just
dropping away, like taking off heavy weights, like black and white becoming
colour, like a dry stick suddenly being watered. The sudden shift of
perspective that says 'Put away your worries, the world is a good and perfect
place. It is in fact very easy.'”
Adams is one of the
wittiest writers I’ve have ever come across. So far. His entire style of writing
is fresh, quirky, crazy, and sometimes so profound you have to stop and think. You
can expect absolutely anything to happen in the series, which makes them such a
different read. His simple analogy teaches us one of the simple things in life
that we so very often keep forgetting.
It’s about focusing
on the sail of the raft, and not on
the otter’s tail :)
Get it? :)
