On Being There — Jerzy Kosińsky
"Life is a state of mind"
— Jerzy Kosiński, Being There, 1979
Photo by Bayram Yalçın on Pexels.
Chance the gardener knew nothing — not politics, not finance, not the world beyond the walled garden he tended his whole life. When his employer died, he was put out into Washington with nothing but a suit and a vocabulary built entirely from television. People mistook his simplicity for depth. A president quoted him. A senator courted him. He never claimed wisdom. He just answered honestly, using the only language he had — gardens, seasons, growth. Everyone else supplied the meaning. Kosiński wasn’t writing a fool. He was writing a mirror.
We see in others exactly what we already believe.
Molins J.
Do you hear what someone actually says — or only the version of them you already believe?
If this resonated, you might also enjoy: On Restraint — Naomi Osaka and On Awareness — James Thurber