I just wrapped up Elif Shafak’s 10 Minutes and 38 Seconds in This Strange World and while I still have to make up my mind about the book but some of its quotes were too good to not be shared. And so I’ve been sharing them on social media all this past week. Here’s one that took my breath away with its simple wisdom.
D/Ali said that, as a rule, people who overused the word ‘natural’ did not know much about the ways of Mother Nature. If you told them how snails, worms and black sea bass were hermaphrodites, or male seahorses could give birth, or male clownfish turned female half way through their lives, or male cuttlefish were transvestites, they would be surprised. Anyone who studied nature closely would think twice before using the word ‘natural’.
– Elif Shafak, 10 minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World
Food for thought, right? How quick we are to label people, thoughts, behaviours unnatural, abnormal when ‘natural’ is way stranger than we can ever imagine.
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This is a gem OM! you nailed it with this – ‘natural’ is way stranger than we can ever imagine.
The thing i dislike most is labelling people and casting them in stereotypes.. and this just takes it head on!!
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What a wonderful quote and so true and bang on. Thanks for sharing it Tullika and I am waiting for your review of this book as I have been looking forward to reading it
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