Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Mandatory Embroidery


I was reading the Brother's Karamazov and I came to a passage that I liked so much I want to learn to embroider so I can embroider it and have it always hanging in my house forever. And I plan to embroider it for every child I send to college to hang in plain view in their dorm room. It goes:

To this I must add that he was already to some extent a youth of our times - in other words, naturally honest, insisting on truth, seeking and believing in it and once believing, demanding instant commitment to it with all the strength of his soul and wanting to rush off and perform great deeds, sacrificing all, if necessary even life itself. Although unfortunately these youths do not understand that the sacrifice of life is in most cases perhaps the easiest of all sacrifices, and that to dedicate, for example, five or six years of their exuberant youth to HARD, PAINSTAKING STUDY and the acquisition of knowledge for the sole purpose of enhancing tenfold their inherent capacity to serve just that cherished truth, that great work which they are committed to accomplish- such a sacrifice as this remains almost completely beyond the capabilities of many of them.

I've got my work cut out for me. Dostoevsky sure enjoys a long sentence. Too bad Hemmingway doesn't offer more pearls of wisdom. He keeps his sentences snappy - perfect for embroidery. Such a sensitive guy.

1 comment:

Morgan said...

Hmmm. Maybe calligraphy?