I knew a woman, lovely in her bones,
When small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them;
Ah, when she moved, she moved more ways than one:...
I
Tuco rarely read poetry but today,
well, someone mentioned this poet,
who wrote great quotes as well as poems. He found this poem online.
It spoke to him, and then again.
"Love likes a gander, and adores a
goose:..."
He pondered finding this particular poem,
and wondered what voice was speaking
to him.
He wondered how the trick was done.
Yet he marveled at the lyric of the lines
and the image brought to life.
Even though she was not home
he knew that sigh, that movement, that lovely, fine boned goose.
And her fragence filled him, gander though he is,
even in her absence.
The Way involves respect for all small and subtle things.
Learn to recognize the right moment to adopt the necessary attitudes.
Even if you have already fired a bow several times,
continue to pay attention how you position the arrow
and how you flex the string.
Lao Tzu¹
II
Tuco was reading again, a different
book, "Accumulating love brings luck,
accumulating hatred brings calamity. Anyone who fails to recognize
problems
leaves the door open for tragedies to rush in."¹ Tuco knew problems
from long experience. Sometimes, he thought, calamity mascarades as
love.
Then the next line brought him up short.
"The battle is not the same as the quarrel."¹
Yes indeed, a quarrel is one thing and a battle another.
But, Tuco recalls, one's vision can be blurred and not see the
transition.
Every Warrior of the Light has felt
afraid of going into battle....
Every Warrior of the Light has hurt someone he loved.
That is why he is a Warrior of the Light,
because he has been though all this and yet has never
lost hope
of being better than he is.²
III
Arlu smiled as she read the chicken
scratch writing,
she knew Tuco was stumbling toward some point. He circles, cuts back,
approaches, steps back. But this book he's reading sums him well.
"A Warrior of the Light is never predictable."² Arlu chuckles.
She recalls the I Ching, "To
persevere is favorable."³
Tuco closes with another quote, "They are not always sure of what they
are doing here. they spend many sleepless nights, believing that
their lives
have no meaning.
"That is why they are Warriors of the Light. Because they make mistakes,
because they ask themselves questions, because they are looking for a
reason
they are sure to find it."²
Arlu folds the letter and places it in the envelope, then the envelope
goes into the box that Tuco has never seen.
Her treasures hidden, she
thinks
of her warrior of the light looking for a reason
that he is sure to find.
She turns to her coffee, not knowing he has found part of a reason -
a woman, lovely in her bones, sighing when small birds sigh.
|