There Are Rivers in the Sky

by Elif Shafak

Later, when the storm has passed, everyone will talk about the destruction it left behind, though no one, not even the king himself, will remember that it all began with a single raindrop.

For the king knows that in order to dominate other cultures, you must capture not only their lands, crops and assets but also their collective imagination, their shared memories.

As ripples of heat rise into the air, the raindrop will slowly evaporate. But it won’t disappear. Sooner or later, that tiny, translucent bead of water will ascend back to the blue skies. Once there, it will bide its time, waiting to return to this troubled earth again…and again. Water remembers. It is humans who forget.

A twelve-thousand-year-old history will be obliterated by a dam that will last fifty years—the lifespan of a mule.

“That is what happens when you love someone—you carry their face behind your eyelids, and their whispers in your ears, so that even in deep sleep, years later, you can still see and hear them in your dreams.”

A tattoo is like a promise, they say, an oath inscribed into your skin, and you need to be sure you can keep it before you commit to it.

“Some people are restless like rivers.”

“Words are like birds,” says Mr. Bradbury. “When you publish books, you are setting caged birds free. They can go wherever they please. They can fly over the highest walls and across vast distances, settling in the mansions of the gentry, in farmsteads and laborers’ cottages alike. You never know whom those words will reach, whose hearts will succumb to their sweet songs.”

He is seized, and not for the first time, by an urge to travel far and wide, a frightening impulse for an introvert like him.

It is the senselessness of it all that eats at him. Mr. Bradbury had everything—an adoring wife, beautiful children, a lovely house and even his own carriage, a profession that earned him a decent salary and a respectable position in society. Why would anyone so successful, wealthy and accomplished want to end their life?

“Remember, child, never look down upon anyone. You must treat everyone and everything with respect. We believe the earth is sacred. Don’t trample on it carelessly. Our people never get married in April, because that’s when the land is pregnant. You cannot dance and jump and stomp all over it. You have to treat it gently. Do not ever pollute the soil, the air or the river. That’s why I never spit on the ground. You shouldn’t do it either.”

One must always walk the earth with wonder, for it is full of miracles yet to be witnessed.

Never make a major decision unless you have spent seven days contemplating it.

Rivers have personalities. Some calm down with age, winding ponderously across fertile plains and meadows; others become bitter, surging with rage, tumbling through steep gorges; while yet others remain agitated and confused till the end. No two rivers are alike.

“Oh, Euphrates says, ‘But you’re mistaken about me. If you only knew how difficult it is to be calm and composed. If you only knew, it takes a fierce fight inside to remain peaceful on the outside.’ ”

“It means no matter how much you know, there is far more that you don’t. So you must always make an effort to keep learning.

Women are expected to be like rivers—readjusting, shapeshifting.

“What happens after catastrophes? Those who survive nurse their broken hearts and start all over again, as one always does, as one always must.”

There are extraordinary people who appear unexpectedly on our paths, and, just as suddenly, they disappear, leaving their indelible marks and a sense of regret. Brief and bright, like a match striking a flame in the dark, they heat the damp kindling of our hearts and then they are gone.

We must always listen to our conscience and help those in need. We don’t throw gasoline on a burning man. We carry him water.”

Clock-time, however punctual it may purport to be, is distorted and deceptive. It runs under the illusion that everything is moving steadily forward, and the future, therefore, will always be better than the past. Story-time understands the fragility of peace, the fickleness of circumstances, the dangers lurking in the night but also appreciates small acts of kindness. That is why minorities do not live in clock-time. They live in story-time.

“When someone gives you the food they’ve prepared, they give you their heart.”

“Remember, for all its pains and sorrows, the world is beautiful. How can it not be, when it is painted in the iridescent colors of the plumes of Melek Tawûs? If we know how to look, we can see beauty even with eyes closed.”

Home is where your absence is felt, the echo of your voice kept alive, no matter how long you have been away or how far you may have strayed, a place that still beats with the pulse of your heart.

The merchant inhales sharply. “My friend, maybe you are the one who doesn’t understand. If you go to other people’s lands to take their things, you cannot get upset at them for questioning your motives.”

“Yeah, you see, you know how these stories go. But I didn’t. It turns out you can never keep the two together for too long, because the chances are the angelfish will gobble up the tetra.”

He never thought there would come a day when he would wonder if it were preferable to live in innocence and die in ignorance instead.

“I doubt any therapists would send their patients to the British Museum, but when you’re next to something so impossibly old, it kind of puts things in perspective. Whatever is troubling you in this moment means little in the sweep of time. I think everyone should hang out with a lamassu every now and then.”

“But how do we find our passions?” says Nen, as if debating with herself. “I really haven’t a clue. Most of the time it’s pure coincidence—a book we encounter in the library, a teacher who leaves an impression, a film we can’t forget…When I look back, I realize I’d have gone crazy if I didn’t have other places to retreat to—the further away from my own reality the better.”

Nen returns her gaze. “You can grow up in a loving family and still struggle.”

You go to distant lands hoping to find something entirely different from what you had at home, never suspecting that you will return a changed person.