why a fig tree?
you're probably thinking I'm obsessed with figs.
while I do enjoy them, laila's fig tree is inspired by one of my favorite quotes. it's true that the quote can seem a little depressing, but I choose to interpret it in a more positive way.
my goal isn't to find just one "fig" to sustain me for the rest of my life, but to taste as many as possible. along the way, I'm sure there will be some I'll like, a handful I'll spit out, some I'll nibble on, and others I'll devour.
I don't think choosing one means losing all the rest. the real loss is in sitting there thinking about what each might taste like, in having more imaginary figs than real ones.
so here's to more figs, and to growing the tree :)
I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.