This Is Happiness

“The known world was not so circumscribed then nor knowledge equated with facts. Story was a kind of human binding. I can’t explain it any better than that. There was telling everywhere. Because there were fewer sources of where to find out anything, there was more listening. A few did still speak of the rain, stood at gates in a drizzle, looked into the sky, made predictions inexact and individual, as if they were still versed in bird, berry or water language, and for the most part people indulged them, listened as if to a story, nodded, said Is that so? and went away believing not a word, but to pass the story like a human currency to someone else.”

The passage provides vivid descriptions that help readers to visualize the scene. Phrases such as “stood at gates in a drizzle,” “looked into the sky” and “versed in bird, berry or water language” engage the senses and create vivid mental images. The statement “Story was a kind of human binding” is also a metaphor that compares stories to the connection between people, indicating the power of storytelling as a unifying factor within a community. In the phrase “as if they were still versed in bird, berry, or water language,” “as if” indicates a simile, comparing the knowledge of predicting weather to a deep, almost innate understanding of nature, something that is usually only associated with animals.

“I can now say that another version of that happens in old age, when it occurs to you that since you’ve lived this long you must have learned something, so you open your eyes before dawn and think: What is it that I’ve learned, what is it I want to say?”

The sentence structure reflects anadiplosis, the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of a clause and the beginning of the next. In this case, the repeated phrase is “you must have learned something,” which is mirrored in the subsequent clause “What is it that I’ve learned.” This repetition emphasizes the importance of self-realization and reflection in old age. The quote also uses rhetorical questions (“What is it that I’ve learned, what is it I want to say?”) to stimulate the reader’s contemplations without seeking an actual response.