Arrival is the culmination of the sequence of events, the last in the list, the terminal station, the end of the line. And the idea of arrival begets questions about the journey and how long it took. Did it take the dancer two hours to dance the ballet, or two hours plus six months of rehearsals, or two hours plus six months plus a life given over to becoming the instrument that could, over and over, draw lines and circles in the air with precision and grace? Sumi-e painters painted with famous speed, but it took decades to become someone who could manage a brush that way, who had the feel for turning leaves or water int a monochromatic image. You fall in love with someone and the story might be of how you met, courted, consummated, but it might also be of how before all that, time and trouble shaped you both of the years, sanded your rought spots and wore away your vices until your scars and needs and hopes came together like halves of a broken whole.

Rebecca Solnit, The Encyclopedia of Trouble and Spaciousness, pg. 199; (2015).

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