Keeps on getting better

The strong ones

Among humans

Do nothing

They talk

And talk again

If there is anything fascinating about the book is the powerful ways of starting a chapter. Paloma, the young girl could just say “I was at a dinner then this happen” But the fact that she uses a haiku as a starting line, at least for me, makes me first want to try to guess what the chapter is going to be about and then read it. 

Now this particular chapter is one I really enjoyed. 

As a young girl it is difficult to have voice, to be able to correct an adult. Even if you are right, an adult normally posses the truth. It is a terrible situation, yet a common one. Now, it is worst if you are not able to express it, if your parents prohibit you from speaking and correcting, apparently it is rude. 

When Colombe, the young girl’s sister, agrees with the fact that those who can; and those who can’t teach, those who can’t teach teach the teachers; and those who can’t teach the teachers go into politics, Paloma makes an analysis of the sentence. 

humans live in a world where it’s words and not deeds that have power, where the ultimate skill is mastery of language.

This phrase left me thinking, why is it that the most ignorant succeed, the ones who are good at talking and persuading. Apparently all you need today is persuasion and you will get anything done, there is no longer a need to really know on a subject but to know how to say it, that is the key. If it were the opposite, we would live in a completely different world. Personally, I think that it is important to be informed, know what you are talking about but be able to express it otherwise it is just a bunch of information encrypted which is of no use for anyone. 

Renée continues on making great profound thoughts. 

What do we know about the world? she asks. 

Not a great deal

Kant and Descartes are an example of people who have questioned the fact that everything we might know might not be true. We could be immersed in a dream, or just imagine everything. It is true that we perceive reality throughout our senses, but our senses are not accurate. We pay attention to whatever we want, we cannot say we see or feel everything because that would just be a lie. 

What we know of the world is only the idea that our consciousness forms of it. (...) According to Husserl’s theory, all that exists is the perception of the cat. 

In spite the fact that Paloma and Renée lead completely different lives their thoughts and analysis tend to be similar. 

Renée is always trying to find some connection with the aristocrats, and she finds that tea is one of them.

When tea becomes a ritual, it tales its place at the heart of our ability to see greatness in small things.  (...) The tea ritual (...) a license given to all, at little cost, to become aristocrats of taste, because tea is the beverage of the wealthy and of the poor; the tea ritual, therefore, has the extraordinary virtue of introducing into the absurdity of our lives an aperture of serene harmony.