More On Happiness
I think it's the best thing in the world to wake up to a thunderstorm and not have anywhere to be. It's 11:30 a.m. and I am still in bed. My windows are actually rattling. Two days left of vacation -- unless you count this day as already halfway over. I'm going to miss vacation so much.
Awhile back my bookclub read Ruth Ozeki's "My Year of Meats." It sounds weird, but it was really a pretty good book. But each chapter started with an excerpt from Sei Shonagon's The Pillow Book, written by a Chinese woman at court in about 1000 AD. I tried to find a copy of the book to buy, but I'll have to order it -- no one keeps it in stock around here.
Anyway, without having read more than excerpts, my understanding is the book is just jottings on her observations of daily life at court. What Ozeki uses to start each of her chapters are some of Shonagon's lists. I like them very much, and I always start thinking about them when I think about things like how much I like the sound of the rain plinking against the window.
Pleasing Things:
Someone has torn up a letter and thrown it away. Picking up the pieces, one finds that many of them can be fitted together.
Things That Give a Pathetic Impression:
The voice of someone who blows his nose while he is speaking.
The expression of a woman plucking her eyebrows.
Things That Give a Clean Feeling:
An earthen cup. A new metal bowl.
A rush mat.
The play of light on water as one pours it into a vessel.
A new wooden chest.
Things That Give an Unclean Feeling:
A rat's nest.
Someone who is late in washing his hands in the morning.
White snivel, and children who sniffle as they walk.
The containers used for oil.
Little sparrows.
A person who does not bathe for a long time, even though the weather is hot.
All faded clothes give me an unclean feeling, especially those that have glossy colors.
Squalid Things:
The back of a piece of embroidery.
The inside of a cat's ear.
A swarm of mice, who still have no fur, when they come wriggling out of their nest.
The seams of a fur robe that has not yet been lined.
Things That Are Near Though Distant:
Paradise.
The course of a boat.
Relations between a man and a woman.