Every once in a while I come across writing so exquisite that my breath catches and my heart opens. There are many examples of parables in literature – simple stories told to provide us with profound insights – so when I came across this piece written by Stephen Mitchell it was so special I had to share it with you.
Cello
It rests inside its close-fitting red-velvet-lined case the way medieval monks slept inside their coffins. But it doesn’t meditate on death; it has already died, and barely remembers sunlight, water, and wind among the branches.
It lies there in the dark, feeling all through its graceful curves the memory of a hundred years of music, and sometimes dreaming of heaven: the Bach suites.
Taken out to be played, it knows that by itself it is nothing, that it would be incapable of producing a single note even it if were a Stradivarius.
So it gladly assents to having its strings tightened. Painful though this is, it wants to be perfectly in tune, stretched to its utmost but not straining.
When it feels ready, it leans back and waits for the bow to be drawn across, for the resonance to fill it completely.
– From Parables and Portraits by Stephen Mitchell
Parables offer an evocative perspective of what it feels like to be other than who or what we are. We enjoy a vivid encounter with profound aspects of life. As we become immersed in the metaphor, the universality of all experience rings true.
Thank you Stephen Mitchell. For a magical moment I was a cello.