« When a Human Tree Falls in the Forest... »

Nobelist V. S. Naipaul is told by Mme. Ondo, an African initiate into Fang (Pygmies) rites, that "Here when an old person dies we say a library has burnt down."  Trees-on-wheels, we (humans), come to an arresting stop amidst the forest of life.  And as we fall, we expose our age-rings of life's wisdom.  But when a human tree falls alone in the forest does it make a sound?

Visit an elder today.

Source:

The Nobelist and the Pygmies by Eliza Griswold (The New York Times Book Review, Nov. 7, 2010)