Put Your Best Foot Forward, a photo by dawn_perry on Flickr.
'If a person wants to stand on her own two feet, I recommend undertaking the care and feeding of something. It could be children or it could be houseplants, you know? By doing that you come to understand your own limitations. That's where it starts.' p. 41
'... if a person hasn't ever experienced true despair, she grows old never knowing how to evaluate where she is in life; never understanding what joy really is.' p. 41
'Again and again I will suffer; again and again I will get back on my feet. I will not be defeated. I won't let my spirit be destroyed.'
From Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
Translated by Megan Backus, 1993
Faber and Faber, London
http://www.yoshimotobanana.com
http://yoshibanana.blogspot.com.au/
