The Hindu Business Line : A secret among sculpture

Vacations may, at times, threaten to end on a note of vacantness. Just the way it did for Tom Cook, who had come from the US to Europe, as an escape from work pressures.

You meet him, in Florence, the last city on his itinerary, where he had hoped ‘to find direction, joy, and inspiration’. But sitting on bench in a bustling plaza, he is tired – of travelling, searching. “Tired of life, just tir ed…” writes Chris Widener in The Angel Inside ( www.crosswordbookstores.com).

As he sat in the ‘city of romance, art, food and wine’ , Tom watched a vast sea of people coming and going, running around just as they did back home, narrates Widener.

Were they happy, Tom wondered? “He certainly wasn’t happy, and couldn’t imagine that anyone else could be either.. Then comes an old man, as in fairy tales. He asks Tom, “What is it that burdens you this day, Thomas?” Tom pauses to think, “What could it hurt? After all, things couldn’t get worse.” He then decides to go ahead with the conversation.

“I just turned thirty and I am nowhere near where I want to be in my career. My boss thinks I have zero career potential – at least it sure comes across that way because he keeps sticking me with jobs that no one else wants. My job seems like a treadmill that will never get me to where I want to go. My girlfriend just dumped me because I don’t have enough ‘upside,’ as she calls it.” The story progresses as a guided tour of Michelangelo’s works, with Tom in the tow of the old man.

For, when working hard, hitting the block of marble that would eventually become his greatest sculpture, David, the Renaissance artist had said, “There is an angel inside this rock, and I am setting him free.” A book that can sculpt your perspective.

D. Murali

http://BookPeek.blogspot.com