Sunday, April 6, 2008

Marvels

Lily believed that the world was a wonderful and magical place. She believed that if you watched carefully enough, you could find miracles anywhere. The town's baseball team had a secret handshake that went back to the time of the settlers. A professor down the street had a skeleton hanging in his vestibule. Behind the dry cleaner, some ladies held newt races. There were interesting things like this everywhere, waiting to be noticed. Though Lily thought that she herself was too quiet and too boring to ever do anything interesting, she believed that if she just was watchful enough and silent enough—so silent that no one could even tell she existed—she would eventually see marvels.

-M. T. Anderson, Whales On Stilts, 2.

5 comments:

Beth said...

In my neighborhood, there is a simply ENORMOUS tree...it looks like a giant elephant leg, grey (not gray) and scabby. And speaking of elephants, there's one just up the street from the church.

What marvels are in YOUR neighborhood? Any newt races?

Unknown said...

our lake-ish-pond has running water- and fresh water jellyfish in the deep parts (about 16 ft) they look like little moon jellies...

Beth said...

I didn't know fresh water jellyfish existed! Do they sting?! Actually, I don't think I knew you had a pond (16 feet deep!) either...

Unknown said...

nope. basically has benign as moon jellies. although wouldn't that make my life so much more exciting, "hey, wanna swim in my pond?" "sure, sure"
"it's pretty nice, just watch out for that fresh water man-o-war on the south side. besides that it should be okay."

Beth said...

6 years later, this conversation cracks me up. And I want to see those jellies.