I got sent the quote commonly called the 'The Fig Tree' by Sylvia Plath (from The Bell Jar) last week.
I readily admit that when I think of Sylvia Plath her life (and death) story overwhelms everything else.
I'm sure you have probably been sent the quote as well - or had someone reference it. In summary, it describes a woman sitting under a fig tree and thinking of the branches as a methphor for her life.
The final line is usually "I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet."
While that might sound like someone in an indecisive panic, I prefer the quote a few pages on when the female protagonist is has been told that the man is the arrow and the woman is 'the place that the arrow shoots from' :
"The last thing I wanted was infinite security and to be the place an arrow shoots off from. I wanted change and excitement and to shoot off in all directions myself, like the colored arrows from a Fourth of July rocket."
That's an image that appeals to me - being a positive light into all the different directions I find myself going.
Where are you going?
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