We, being humans, are prone to feeling these emotions more frequently than we would like to admit. The triggers that could lead us to this pit are too many to count.
Loss of a loved one, struggle with a chronic illness, a crippling disability, lack of financial resources, one or many toxic relationships in life, the list just goes on. It’s very difficult to see the light at the bottom of that pit. And humanly so.
But, like they say, darkness and light cannot co-exist. And thankfully the words of the wise bring much needed respite in our hours of struggle.
“Wound is the place where the light enters you.”
There are examples scattered all throughout the history of the world – where amid abject misfortunes, people not only came out victorious in their own life struggles beating all imaginable odds, but inspired thousands of others to look beyond the limitations of their present circumstances – emotional or material.
Imagine a world where Hellen Keller resigned to her disability, Oprah Winfrey gave in to the negativity of her early childhood and adolescence, JK Rowling gave up on her writing dreams on receiving a flurry of rejections, Steve jobs gave up on his dreams of creating exemplary tech that the world would eventually come to adore.
The pain they experienced going through those unfortunate circumstances would have been excruciating, but thankfully they braved the odds stacked against them and showed the world that if it’s imaginable, it is possible.
And this victory was not just theirs. Think of the hundreds of thousands of lives that they touched and inspired. The world certainly is a better place following their triumph. A world that now has sign language, Macs, iPads and Harry Potter!
That’s the power of a wound. It can pivot our lives towards exemplary achievement or a depressing abyss.
The direction that our life goes in, post-misfortune, depends on our own resilience in face of hardships.
Light can enter our wounds and heal them.
The catch is for us to see it and let it do its work.
Jerome K Jerome is known for a lot of things. And being funny is right on top.
I was surfing the web randomly one fine day – I chanced upon this quote by Jerome K Jerome:
“I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.”
Mind you, this was one of those days where I started off searching for a newly-launched flavor of ice-cream, only to see myself desperately looking for life advice from Epicurus precisely five minutes later.
The journey from ice-cream to Epicurus was of the speed-of-light type, and I would certainly not bore you with the chain of search terms that led me there.
Anyway, coming back to the topic, when I read this quote by Jerome this time, it did more than just make me smile. Of course, I relate to the quote, I do find myself staring at the huge pile of work, frozen, from time to time.
But the “staring at the amount of work that I need to do” thing does not happen frequently enough for me to take a spiritual trip to rethink my life.
Then I started to wonder: what’s the frequency that would actually raise red flags?
I wanted answers. So naturally, the place I went to is Google.
Turns out there is no definite answer to this complex question. The answers that I found on the internet were more like “42” to the “ultimate question of life, the universe and everything” (this is a reference from Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy).
Disheartened, but now with a purpose of the day, I went back to Jerome’s quote, looking for clues that I might have overlooked.
I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.
Hmmm…..
Was he promoting mindfulness? Totally immersing himself in the moment? Enjoying looking at the work, deeply immersed in the moment and deriving inexplicable pleasure in the process?
I can easily imagine why doing that would be fascinating. And somewhere in the world, Thich Nhat Hanh, would take pride in having another illustrious figure (Jerome of course!) join his Mindfulness movement.
Was he a ninja planner? One of those ‘Type A’ personality people that absolutely love breaking down their work in a series of measurable milestones, so that they can derive immense satisfaction when they check them off upon completion?
You and I both know many people like that.
This definitely makes sense.
So, he was a mindful planner. He derived immense pleasure staring at his huge pile of work.
Darn! Now we have even more reasons to look up to him.
He can make us smile.
He can make us laugh.
He can make us laugh very hard (trust me , I have come close to peeing my pants reading Three Men in a Boat)
He was mindful and enjoyed every moment.
He was a Ninja Planner!
Phew! Too much inspiration from one person for a day. We need a reward. We need an ice-cream.. right this moment!
By the way what’s the latest flavor of ice-cream that Ben & Jerry launched recently?
These words from Friedrich Nietzsche have inspired many of us over the years – and like a perfectly-aged whiskey, they have only gotten better.
The times that we find ourselves in today amid the COVID-19 crisis, these words are more powerful than ever before : What does not kill you, makes you stronger.
Here, let me ask you a question: what did your life look like just two weeks ago? And what does it look like right now?
Maybe a couple of weeks ago, you went for dinner at a fancy restaurant, attended a work party or were out there vacationing with no care in the world.
Today’s picture is not that, regardless of where you are in the world.
If you do not live under a rock, you probably are constantly hooked to news channels, looking at statistics, gleaning off every little piece of information about Coronavirus that you can find, pretty much like a trader hooked to a Bloomberg screen.
You want to know how the situation is going to evolve so you can make decisions. You want to be in the know. Knowledge is power. Isn’t it?
You want to be able to control, and there is nothing wrong in that. After all, it has been scientifically proven through numerous studies that humans that feel they are in control are happier than those that are not (I humbly invite you to read Stumbling upon Happiness).
And the loss of control on your life right now is unsettling. It is scary. It is okay to feel scared, angry or sad (and one of those bad days, all of those three things at once).
However, the key is to NOT dwell on those emotions.
After all, how much worse could it have been that it’s not already?
You might think that you have hit absolute rock bottom. But think again.
You are still breathing.
You still have people in your life that you love and can count on. You can still listen to your favorite music, read your favorite books and continue on with your Netflix marathons.
If anything, technology has ensured that you can still keep in touch with them. You have an entire planet with people experiencing almost the same scary emotions as you. This you can be absolutely sure of. There are millions of people out there feeling the same emotions.
You are not alone.
Yes, life could have been better. And it will be. But we have time from now until then and the quality of this time that we spend is directly proportional to our willingness to put a positive spin to our circumstances right now.
Yes, we are on house arrest, longer than we would want to be.
But, I want to draw your attention to the perks it brings – wearing pyjamas to work EVERYDAY, not having to take a bath everyday (how awesome is that!), watch two movies a day, go on a ‘Call of Duty’ mission on your computer, listen to music while working… the list can be as long as we want it to be.
We are the choices we make.
And lucky for us, Corona or not, we still call the shots.
Drunken Fireworks is a short story written by Stephen King. It was first released as an audio book in 2015 as one of the stories in a short fiction novel titled The Bazaar of Bad Dreams.
Stephen King mentions an anecdote with this short story, wherein an old woman, recognizing him at a grocery store, told him that she does not like horror stories.
He did clarify that horror was not the only genre that he has written in. He mentions that he loves to read and write stories that are funny and it shouldn’t surprise anybody, because humor and horror are Siamese twins “you write some scary stories and you’re like the girl who lives in the trailer park on the edge of town: you get a reputation.”
Too bad that he didn’t write humor as much; because going by what this story offers, we can do as much with King’s humor as with horror, if not more.
Drunken Fireworks: Summary and Plot Analysis
The story is narrated by Alden McCausland, who has been taken into custody by the Castlecounty police.
Alden lives with his mother, and they are what he calls themselves – idle rich, having recently acquired a lot of wealth from his father’s demise followed by a lottery win.
Both Alden and his mother have comfortably settled in a life that usually involves them spending a lot of time idling around and drinking. They spend most of their summers at Lake Abenaki.
Their neighbors, on the other side of the lake, are an Italian-American family – The Massimo. They are very rich and owe their wealth to a very successful construction business.
The McCauslands, however, do not think much of them.
Thanks to them being Italian and operating a business out of Rhode Island, they are obviously connected to the Mafia, in the eyes of McCauslands.
Starting from one fateful day of 4th of July celebrations, both families engage inadvertently in what came to be called the “4th of July Arms race”.
What ensues is an insane game of McCauslands and Massimos going to great lengths to one-up their neighbors. Being ‘trumped’ by the Massimos on almost all occasions, Alden and his mother become more and more desperate to win the next showdown.
Their desperation takes Alden to forge new connections himself – going to the extent of sourcing “Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind” or “GE4” – illegally.
In the ensuing showdown, completely oblivious to the dry summers that Castle county had that year, Alden launches the GE4, only to witness that the fireworks go further than the intended purpose of showing Massimos who’s the boss.
A shift of wind sets the pine trees around Massimo’s house on fire. Soon after, flames engulf the house and destroy it.
Alden is then arrested by the police.
The story Drunken Fireworks has a lot to do with fireworks… duh!
The police, upon receiving a full statement from Alden, lets him know that Massimo will not be pressing charges, considering that they were also accountable for taking the arms race to ridiculous proportions, eventually leading to damage.
Alden is not convicted but soon comes to know that his cabin is burned down too and the cause was attributed to his carelessness, keeping the fireworks too close to the stove. He is advised that getting along with that story, and having insurance pay for the damages is the best course of action for him.
Drunken Fireworks: Analysis and Review
The story has humor written all over it. Be it Alden’s complete insensitivity to other
Cultures or his mom avoiding ‘alcohol abstinence’ like leprosy.
The story is not devoid of time-tested wisdom either. Consider the following for an example:
“I guess a lot of Ma’s weight gain had to do with coffee brandy, they don’t call it fat ass in a glass for no reason. But she said she was never Miss America to begin with.”
We have all seen someone like that – family or friend – haven’t we? Oh forget all that , how much it reminds me of myself!
Look here:
“something’s gonna kill everyone, am I not right? Doctors have a way of forgetting that but Ma knew.”
I noticed two things in that statement- the way I have seen our dear elderly folks try to brush off requests for making some healthy changes to lifestyle and the creative excuses that they come up with to counter them and Alden’s dog-like devotion to her mom.
“..but they were Italian, and Massimo construction was based in Providence, Rhode Island, and you’re cops, you can connect the dots. And Ma always used to say if you put two and two together, you never get five.”
A sharp comment on the number of babies of Massimos:
“Massimos must have had half a dozen babies, and they wore colors so bright, they burn your eyes if you looked at them too long.”
The next one here makes me laugh every time I read it:
“Someone ought to dip that trumpet in olive oil and stick it up his ass. He could fart out ‘God Bless America.’”
Alden’s blatant disregard towards his Italian neighbors is so disgusting yet hilarious.
Some motivational quotes from Drunken Fireworks
There were a few motivational gems referenced in the story as well. Consider the ones listed below:
“It ain’t the size of the dog in the fight but the size of fight in the dog.”
Then there’s this:
“I didn’t bother telling her no made up story, because she always sees through them and has since I was knee-high to a collie.”
This one did elicit an aww from me. The mother-and-son relationship shown in this is the only glimpse of love that you get, hiding behind all the humor and stupidity of the characters.
Mr King does not write humor much and I don’t see why.
The Stone boy is a short story by Gina Berriault. It was first published in 1957 in Mademoiselle magazine. The story revolves around a nine-year-old boy who accidentally shoots his older brother, but is freakishly calm about it later on.
The short story catapulted its author, Gina Berriault, to international fame when the story was made into a movie in 1984. Before this short story became so popular, her first collection of short stories – The Mistress, and Other Stories – had helped a great deal to establish Gina as a consummate writer.
The Stone Boy: Summary and Plot Analysis
The story is about a nine-year-old boy, Arnold, who lives with her mom, dad, sister and an elder brother, Eugie. Although not very expressive, he admires his elder brother, Eugie in his heart and hopes to grow up to be like him.
One morning he wakes up early to pick peas in the fields with his brother Eugie. He wakes him up and goes downstairs. He then picks up the rifle his dad gave them a few days ago to shoot ducks.
Eugie comes downstairs too, reminds Arnold that it wasn’t duck season and the two boys leave the house for an early morning trip to the fields to pick peas.
They come to the wire fence that divides the fields from the lake. Eugie passes through the fence first. Arnold follows him, but his gun is stuck in the wires.
In an attempt to untangle it, he jerks at it and accidentally fires a shot.
Feeling foolish for making this mistake and bracing himself for the impending
teasing from his brother, he reluctantly walks on but notices that his brother is lying on the ground.
Unable to understand this behavior, he looks more carefully and sees blood on the back of his head.
He realizes that the shot that he accidentally fired ended up killing his elder brother.
Poster of the 1984 movie The Stone Boy, which is based on the short story.
Instead of running to his family, informing them about the accident and seeking their help, he stays on in the field to pick peas as if nothing had happened.
To him, it was reasonable to complete the task that he came to do in the first place. Leaving the task incomplete for something that was beyond his control didn’t appeal to his reasoning, logical mind.
He stays on, finishes the task and goes back home. He dreads breaking the news to his family but does so with amazing calm.
Quite unsurprisingly, his family is devastated.
While his mother finds it hard to come to terms with her elder son’s death and Arnold`s pathological calm, his sister completely ignores his presence. His father, in addition to arranging for his son’s funeral, has to take Arnold to the County Sheriff.
Upon being asked to narrate the incidents from the morning that day, Arnold explains everything to his father and uncle Andy. However, he is at a loss of words when asked why he didn’t run back home to announce the news.
His father is puzzled by his cold demeanor, and Arnold starts to feel even more distant and aloof.
The spell of silence finally breaks when the Sheriff arrives.
He asks Arnold a series of questions including why he had the gun in the first place and if he had a “good relationship” with his elder brother.
Although his answers seem extremely cold, which is disconcerting, he concludes that there is no foul play and the shooting was indeed an accident. He lets Arnold and the family go. However, he does mention that the freakishly cold demeanor displayed by Arnold was indicative of a criminal mind in making.
Uncle Andy agrees with Sheriff’s explanation and goes till the extent of mocking his reasonableness. His cousin taunts him as well, saying that his father might have punished him severely if he did the same thing to his brother.
Arnold keeps growing uneasy and even more distant, the weight of judgement from everyone around weighing heavily on him. At night, he eventually goes to his mom’s room to explain to her in person about the events that transpired earlier that day, but his mother, who is still grieving, turns him away.
He feels more and more like a burden on his family – an unwelcome presence and with his brother gone and everyone else around him grieving – he shuts himself off completely, vowing never to be vulnerable again.
The following morning, when his mother asks what he wanted from her, he says “nothing” with a freakish calm, leaving his mother terrified.
The Stone Boy: Analysis and Review
Gina has managed to pack so much power in this short story – it’s unbelievable!
She makes you root for the boy, but not without questioning his judgement (or worse without judging him once). The fact that his reason is mistaken as being completely unfeeling is so inexplicably daunting.
There are certain incidents from the story that are so beautifully human yet painful, such as:
1 – “What did he mean “good friends”?
Arnold was clueless when the sheriff asked if he was ‘good friends’ with his elder brother, whom he had accidentally killed earlier that day.
It’s heart-wrenching to see how this young boy, who had so much love and admiration for his brother, unable to express himself in a socially acceptable form – is perceived to be a criminal in making and stone-cold, or rather, a stone.
2 – Arnold never tired of watching Eugie offer silent praise unto himself
Arnold loved watching his brother look into the mirror, inspecting himself and feeling proud. He secretly wondered if he could ever be able to fill his shoes. If his parents never called him, he thought, he would stay up in the loft forever, out of the way.
When Arnold broke the news to his parents, who disbelievingly went out of the house to see for themselves, Arnold sneaked out to the barn. He was ready for the punishment in case his parents never call him.
He would be prepared to forever live in the same space and stay out of their way. In that very instant, Eugie playful young brother had transformed into someone wholly guilt-ridden and prepared to face the consequences of his actions.
Gina Berriault once said – Short stories and some short novels are close to poetry–with
the fewest words they capture the essence of a situation, of a human being. It’s like trying to pin down the eternal moment.
She has done just that with Stone Boy.
Movie based on The Stone Boy
If you are one of those readers that love watching movie adaptations of your favorite reads, you are in for a treat. The movie, The Stone Boy, was released back in 1984 and had Robert Duvall as one of the lead actors.
This movie was one of the reasons why her short story catapulted to instant fame.
Do you want to read The Stone Boy?
The Stone Boy, and other famous short stories written by Gina Berriault can be found on Amazon through the links given below:
