The unbearable lightness

translucent,

whisper soft...

five layers of hand dyed cloth

held (momentarily) by a single pin.

   We all need somebody to look at us.  We can be divided into four categories according to the

   kind of look we wish to live under.  The first category longs for the look of an infinite number

   of anonymous eyes, in other words, for the look of the public...

   The second category is made up of people who have a vital need to be looked at by many known

   eyes.  They are the tireless hosts of cocktail parties and dinners...

   Then there is the third category, the category of people who need to be constantly before the eyes

   of the person they love.  Their situation is as dangerous as the situation of people in the first

   category.  One day the eyes of their beloved will close, and the room will go dark...

   And finally there is the fourth category, the rarest, the category of people who live in the imaginary

   eyes of those who are not present.  They are the dreamers."

~ Milan Kundera, from The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Although I wrote (what then seemed quite profound) a notation along the margin of the page,

I did not understand this quote when I first read it in my mid-twenties...

nor did I understand that lives can be shaped by irrevocable choices.

The summer solstice has arrived

and a few frayed edges are lining up...