Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Always on the side of the egg

Haruki Murakami was awarded the Jerusalem Prize. I found the manuscript of his speech for the award. This speech was very sound and courageous. You can read the entire manuscript at this link. I really admire him that he spoke this sensitive issue about the Gaza district in front of Israeli. He was by himself and unarmed there.

haaretz.com: (by Haruki Murakami)

"Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg."

Yes, no matter how right the wall may be and how wrong the egg, I will stand with the egg. Someone else will have to decide what is right and what is wrong; perhaps time or history will decide. If there were a novelist who, for whatever reason, wrote works standing with the wall, of what value would such works be?

This is not all, though. It carries a deeper meaning. Think of it this way. Each of us is, more or less, an egg. Each of us is a unique, irreplaceable soul enclosed in a fragile shell. This is true of me, and it is true of each of you. And each of us, to a greater or lesser degree, is confronting a high, solid wall. The wall has a name: It is The System. The System is supposed to protect us, but sometimes it takes on a life of its own, and then it begins to kill us and cause us to kill others - coldly, efficiently, systematically.