“Who what am I?  My answer: I am the sum total of everything that went before me, of all I have been seen done, of everything done-to-me.  I am everyone everything whose being-in-the-world affected was affected by mine.  I am anything that happens after I’ve gone which would not have happened if I had not come.  Nor am I particularly exceptional in this matter; each ‘I,’ every one of the now-six-hundred-million-plus of us, contains a similar multitude.  I repeat for the last time: to understand me, you’ll have to swallow a world.”

Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children.   New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1980, 440.

peace, dwight

To Understand Another . . . Swallow a World
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8 thoughts on “To Understand Another . . . Swallow a World

  • February 3, 2006 at 8:39 AM
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    That’s a great quote from an absolutely amazing book. Thanks Dwight!

  • February 23, 2006 at 1:32 AM
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    Thanks – that was clarifying and directive! 🙂

  • February 28, 2006 at 10:42 PM
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    dwight,
    thanks for this quote. it reminds me of our conversation at Colin’s about not wishing people or situations out of our stories, but learning to value them because without them we wouldn’t be who we are now.

    i look forward more dialogue.
    cheers,
    bryan

  • March 4, 2006 at 4:36 AM
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    wow! that was really nice. more of a breathtaking definition of the self 🙂

    thanks for sharing it in your blog 🙂

    God bless! 🙂

  • March 4, 2006 at 12:20 PM
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    what a beautiful breakaway from our individualistic society…i wonder if we ourselves as a human individual is a testament that we are no one is individual, we are an analogy for the church, the body of Christ is a broken conglomeration of the whole world, and so are we. and how when all mushed together comes out so beautiful and unique…in other words, score

  • March 8, 2006 at 9:08 AM
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    Hey Dwight,
    Is this the Dwight Friesen that I know from Briercrest? I would love to chat if it is. If you could drop me a line, I’d love it. Thanks man.

    Sid

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