“Then he reproved her, saying that it was imprudent to visit
such houses. Villela might learn of it, and then…
‘Impossible! I was exceedingly careful when I entered the
place.’” (The Fortune Teller, Machado
de Assisi, 48)
It was then that I knew that Villela would indeed see her
and that the story would end in death. No, I’m not a super sleuth,
I have just read a few morbid short stories in my day. (Favorites: The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
and A Rose For Emily by William
Faulkner.) These two lines say so much, yet so little. On a quick read-through,
these sentences would be overlooked, like much foreshadowing is. This
particular instance of foreshadowing reminds me of Pride and Prejudice when Elizabeth Bennett says that she doesn’t
care what Mr. Darcy thinks because she doubts she will ever see him again. Spoiler
Alert: she sees him again.
I think that life is made up of overlooked foreshadowing.
For instance, at the start of a new semester, I assess the students in my classes
and determine who I would or would not like to do a group project with. And I
nearly always end up working with those I didn’t want to work with. (The same
thing happens with Church callings. “Please, I don’t want to be FHE group
leader. Anything but FHE group
leader.” The next day: “We’d like to extend a calling to you to be… FHE GROUP
LEADER!” You know you’ve been there.)
My point is simple: we miss a lot of opportunities because
we overlook foreshadowing in our lives. Obviously Machado’s story wouldn’t have
been the same if Camillo and Rita had recognized that moment as foreshadowing.
But in real life, I think we could
make our lives a lot better if we seized opportunities that may be
foreshadowing. In a way, we could almost choose
what path we want to take in life.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
No comments:
Post a Comment