"Then the sea does nothing at all"

 

"One evening I went down to our live-box to getsome fish for the cat and dropped my knife inthe water, which made me think about what theisland looked like down there where it started - maybe a broad base that lost itself in the long,deserted ocean floor - less and less seaweed, moreand more darkness, absolute silence…" "And she notes that you never know with theweather. Suddenly the sea level rises - clearlystrong wind coming. The sea sinks catastrophically- there will be a storm. Then the sea does nothingat all, and pretty soon the wind’s blowing your earsoff. She adds that in fact all the facts and statisticsare idiotic, because the sea does precisely whateverit wants.[…] At the end of her notebook Ham wrote,underlined, “We must not gild the lily.” Yes, yes,I know, probably from the Bible. And I knowexactly what she meant - that we’ve tried to makethe meadow into a garden, change the thicket intoa park, tame the shore with a dock, and all theother things we’ve undeniably done wrong."
—Notes from an islandTove Jansson & Tuulikki Pietilä