Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my
grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or
a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way
so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that
tree or that flower you planted, you’re there. It doesn’t matter what you do,
he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched
it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away. The
difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the
touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at
all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.
No comments:
Post a Comment