Pounamu's Reflections, by Carène Wood

ISBN 978-0-473-12417-5 

 
" Pounamu's Reflections " is a book of two novellas : The Last Letter and The Table of Saturday Philosophers. This Carène Wood's book has been selected for the International Book Fair for writers from islands in Ouessant, France (2007). The french name of the book is " Sur l'île de Jade on y pense ".

THE LAST LETTER

Summary:

« The Last Letter » is one of the two novellas of « Pounamu's Reflections ». A father at the twilight of his life writes a final letter to his children, who live on the other side of the world. He is an ordinary peasant who lives the simple life. To keep a promise made to his wife, Margot, he tries to pass on his life philosophy based on common sense.

Analysis:

The aim of this epistle is not to contrast the modest and reasoned way of life of a labourer with the wild and consuming rhythm of the urban machine, but to show that use of common sense could have avoided the chaos in which the world finds itself. Maybe it is not too late to slow down this fall, although everything points to the opposite. Nowadays human interactions are not only accelerating but also the number of intermediaries is increasing. People have forgotten the importance of feelings. By means of a long letter, a father gives his children a final message about love, hope and respect in order to help them free themselves from the superfluous. What is essential is the quest for happiness. This quest must be based on the balance of inner and personal wealth. Often one tries to find it far away from one's home, and one forgets to look within oneself.

Extract:

« Listen to your heart.
Something you have forgotten in your furious pace of modern life. Education and training are the work of life.
So why hurry, I ask you? ''To know more'' would be your reply. But there is only one thing to know.
Do you know what it is? Apparently not.
There has been an error in interpretation.
You have been sold the fact that education would reward you with degrees and professional, fulfilling jobs, and that your income would be huge and that these things would make you happy, comfortable and successful.
It’s a mirage.
Most of you now realise, that this doesn’t compute.
''Dead at twenty and buried at seventy-five'' This is an article that I read the other day when I was in the Café ‘Le Bon Laboureur’.
A tourist had left an economics magazine, at least 5 years old, and Paulette was ripping out the pages to wrap up the half dozen fresh eggs, which she preciously saves for me. Because today, a good egg is hard to find.
The title intrigued me and I grabbed the page from Paulette’s hands before she crumpled it. If you want to read the article, it will be in my tin box. I’ve kept it because it illustrates your life well: a long agony. »

 

THE TABLE OF SATURDAY PHILOSOPHERS 

Summary:

On Pounamu, people meet by chance but it always seems right. « The Table of Saturday Philosophers », the second novella of « Pounamu's Reflections », gathers together men and women knocked about by life. They seek a lost love or a love never met, a sincere friendship, or quite simply a new bit of luck. Philosophers over a meal or a cup of coffee, they try to tame their pain and sorrow by suggesting answers to world problems. For that, they have only one aim: to dare to give love back the place it deserves.

Analysis:

« The Table of Saturday Philosophers » describes how people meet in the manner of an impressionist painting, by small dashes of colors here and there. With lightness but with gravity, one catches the brushstrokes in flight. The painting is like a puzzle, and in their own way, the Saturday philosophers fill the gaps formed by the missing pieces. The fate of these nomadic human beings is presented to the reader with modesty, frankness, tenderness and lucidity. The writer invites us to discover these unpretentious philosophers, who, in spite of a painful past, share a deep attachment for love and friendship. These two noble values constitute the basis of their quest for identity and inner peace.

Extract:

« One hasn’t turned up at the table by accident. One arrives there after having travelled a long road. Each one arrives on one wing and on one leg. Some often arrive after many springtimes have amassed. But some suddenly find themselves there in the autumn without ever having seen a summer. There they were, having a coffee with others who had come to triumph over themselves and build inner strength.
This table of friends is a table of ‘grass roots philosophers’: They find a solution for every problem. Over several hours each Saturday morning, they create a protective bubble over the group and their voyage begins towards the land of happiness: a green planet. Around the table of regulars sit poor tormented human beings, mortals, who have finally broken their shells of pride, self-indulgence and hatred to allow humility, joy, wisdom and purity into their lives. »

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