"The Lay of the Land" by Richard Ford, a reading journal (6)

Happiness

What are books made of? There is the obvious plot, usually summarizable in a short paragraph. But the bulk of pages is filled with a stream of speech, many times simple glances into things, observations, impressions pinned down on a writer's notebook to be used who knows when, sometimes years in the future. And sometimes a moment is frozen in time for ever, as if it were a photograph of words. My own words are meaningless, a small moment of my time alone with the many pages of a book. The image-words are powerful reminders of what someone once saw or, even more relevant, is making us see.

I very much enjoyed the small episode of the Filipino family having a picnic at the beach where Frank and Clarissa go for their daily walk. (p. 182)

"These beach lovers had established an illegal compfire and were laughing and toasting weenies, sitting around on the cold sand, enjoying life. The men were small and compact and wore what looked like old golfer's shirts and new jeans and sported wavy, lacquered coifs. The women were small and substancial and peered across the sands at Clarissa and me with lowered, guilty eyes. We're entitled, their dark looks said, we live here: One man cheerfully waved his long fork at us, a blackned furter hanging from its prongs. A boom box played, though not loud, whatever Filipino music sounds like. We both gave them a wave back and plodded toward home."

It reminded me of another immigrant family having a picnic in Carl Sandburg's "Happiness".

Happiness

I ASKED the professors who teach the meaning of life to tell
me what is happiness.
And I went to famous executives who boss the work of
thousands of men.
They all shook their heads and gave me a smile as though
I was trying to fool with them
And then one Sunday afternoon I wandered out along
the Desplaines river
And I saw a crowd of Hungarians under the trees with
their women and children and a keg of beer and an
accordion.

Happiness better seen through the eyes of those who have faced adversity and, at the same time, immigrants seen as a different breed of still innocent people that - avoiding the cynical sophistication of the educated life - can still feel the most basic and simple pleasures.


Other reading journals: an index