john berger our faces mu heart brief as photos illustration

Thoughts on Hope at the Post Office – By John Berger

“The post office at Auxonne is small and the postmistress has blue eyes. I have been there only twice. The first time was to send you a parcel; as the postmistress weighed it on the scale, I imagined your hands opening it. “Four kilos, three hundred grams.” In a parcel, wrapped by hand, there is a message weighing nothing: the receiver’s fingers may unknot the string which the sender’s tied. In the post office I saw in my mind’s eye your fingers untying the knot I tied at Auxonne.

John Berger A Parcel illustration
Get this artwork

Ten days later I again stopped in the town, and went to the post office, this time to post you a letter. I remembered the day when I sent off the parcel and I felt a twinge of loss. Yet what had I lost? The parcel arrived safely. You had made soup with the beetroots. And the bottle of distilled water from the flowers of the orange trees you had placed on its shelf, above your dresses in the cupboard. All that had been lost was the little future of the parcel.
What we mourn for the dead is the loss of their hopes. The man-with-the-parcel was as if dead; he could hope no more. The man-with-the-letter had taken his place.”

From John Berger’s book ‘And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief as Photos’.

And if you enjoyed reading this, I think you might like these things as well:

Thoughts on Hope at the Post Office – By John Berger

“The post office at Auxonne is small and the postmistress has blue eyes. I have...

Little Home Joys

At times I like to walk through the house with my camera in hand and...

Walking on the Edge of the Abyss

but I don’t feel scared, really. Rather amazed, every day, that I am still standing...

Learn to See New Things

even now, 50 years later, it is still an interesting show to watch. It teaches...

What I Learned From My 90-year-old Friend

When we got to know each other we were surprised at how similar we were,...

You Are Alive

“And what is it like: to be alive in this maybe one place of all...

How to Always Look Lovely According to Roald Dahl

if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and...

Turning Sadness into Joy – Vincent van Gogh’s Life

He was very poor, got heartbroken several times, got betrayed by friends, had a complicated...

What We Lost With the Invention of the Photograph

I do think we lost something profound with the invention of the photograph: The trust...

The Man Who Turned Pain into Ecstatic Beauty

Dr. Who is a time traveler and in this episode he takes the painter Vincent...

Fleeting Beauty

I need to believe that every moment, every place, has some beauty in it –...

How to Alter the Past

This letter is one of the most interesting and thought-provoking things I’ve read so far....

Finding Beauty in Grieving

Grieving over someone who died is painful. But in this experience there are also places...

I Am Not Who I Am (Rembrandt And I)

God says “I am who I am.” But with human beings it should be: “We...

Practical Remedies Against Melancholy – By Sydney Smith

Sydney Smith was born in the 18th century and writes about his solutions to melancholy...

What If Life Was Meant to Be Seen?

What if Life was meant to be seen? Our only job To notice the bird...

Don’t Turn Down This Invitation!

"There is only one invitation it would kill me to refuse, yet I’m tempted to...

Practice Resurrection – My Favorite Poem by Wendell Berry

Expect the end of the world. Laugh. Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful though you have...

What it Means to Be Yourself – Inspired by Virginia Woolf

To be yourself is not as straightforward as it sounds. In fact, yourself has everything...

Lovely Song About The Joy of Beauty in Spring and Summer

I hope you enjoy this lovely song by Karen Peris, it reminds me of those...

The Snail on The Garden-Path

Dorothy L. Sayers writes in The Mind of The Maker this beautiful sentence: “God is...

The Second Coming of the Trees – A Poem by Wendell Berry

The country where he lives is haunted by a ghost of an old forest. In...

I Wish I Was Fearless

This is a little poem on being fearless that I wrote to accompany this painting....

Oh, I Smell Spring!

“It was a bland day in early April and spring was looking at you round...

I Want To Thrive, Not Just Survive

Every day I come to new discoveries about life and living. They are new and...

0 0 votes
Artikelbeoordeling
Subscribe
Notify of

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

0 Reacties
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments