Saxum Volutum Non Abducitur Musco

 

 

I was recording random thoughts on my laptop when an old friend from England sent me an email.

“Yet another change we have been allowed to witness – even the Queen of England is mortal” he wrote.

I have known him for many decades. I wrote of another communication with him a decade ago which has been read around the globe (https://vahezen.blogspot.com/2014/09/veronicas-veil_2.html).

“You recall the old saying that rolling stone does not gather moss? You have been a rolling stone and I assume you have been through a lot of change in all the places where you did not g row roots. For us, many have their roots in England and her history, so this is a major event.”

… Here is what I was writing on the screen when his email arrived:

Misfortune or Fortuna?

 

In the shade

Of a pine tree

Next to the sea

I left a note

For me to read

So I sent it to him.

“Your timing is impeccable. My mind was in the past, next to the bluest sea, wondering if it is fortune or misfortune to have been a rolling stone. “

“It is always both of those things” he replied in his usual manner. “You have the ability to not feeling lonely. So, it is a fortune. But do you sometimes wonder about belonging?”

Hmm.

I took my time to respond.

“I do not belong to material things or to trees, oceans and rainbows over mountains. I probably belong to the moment with people. That is what stays with me to be grateful to have had those moments, to learn about ideas, feelings and eventually about myself. Funny, in some ways it is like photography – being in that moment and capturing it as a blessing is always in shades of gray.”

“Ah, your love of B&W photography that goes beyond taking photos. It is a life philosophy, isn’t it?”

… Not gathering moss.

“Tell me” I said “what is moss for you?”

“Well, in its larger meaning it would be belonging. If you move around, willingly or by necessity, you do not belong to any of the places you moved to and from. Yes, you would gather joy, sorrow, and perhaps wisdom from the passages, but you will have had no time to growing roots. Or perhaps simply growing. Does that make you devoted of that joy I have of following my favorite football team for years, having bitter beer, or hearing “God save the King”? Simple things that often can mean a lot and make gathering moss a needed human path to inner comfort.”

And then he added:

“In those lines you were writing when I knocked at your door, what did you write on the note that was destined to you?”

I could not resist:

“If you had not interrupted my train of thought by your email, I was about to discover that myself!”

 

September 8, 2022

©Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2022