Saturday, May 22, 2010

Topography of the Fool's Journey


© Amruta Patil 2010

3 comments:

Kiran said...

Lol ! Awesome. thoroughly enjoyed it. "I need to be someplace that isn't this. But where? He lets his left foot decide." Resonated well :)

Sanat said...

"Crusade-a-day crusader" sounds like Arundhati Roy. Finger in every disaster pie.

amruta patil said...

Extremely fortunate that you brought this up, Sanat. Thank you.

Easy to see the pattern in her process, no? The stories are linked. It's the unraveling sweater. Why is it a long leap of interest to go from worrying about a river to worrying about the people who live connected closest to land? Wouldn't laugh at Ms. Roy's intent - though I see it has become fashionable to do so.
*
Also, being 'The Fool' isn't an absurd or random process. It isn't foolish actions (and God knows those are aplenty here) that qualify one to be the journeyman - it is the fool that labels himself thus, very consciously, stripping himself of pretensions of expertise and knowledge.

Perhaps there are only four really free people - the mad man, the fool, the jester, the seer/hermit/sage. (as far as the masses are concerned, all of the above qualify as 'mad men'). they aren't in the same league, wisdomwise, but at least they are free to come to their own conclusion about the way life is, and aren't held by the scruff of their neck like chastised overgrown kittens.