okay, this has a great double meaning, you don't have to read it if you dont want to
uhm, it's from the book "Like Water For Chocolate" .. I thought this chapter was boring,
until I finally got to the end of this Chapter [6]. Alright, I won't spoil the book.
Haha, but I really love this double meaning, that's why I'm typing all of this out!
Alright, the scene is a girl lost love and a guy that is in love with her is trying to explain
that she can open up and love again. I'm not giving you more than that, READ THE BOOK!
Like Water for Chocolate - Laura Esquivel
Chapter 6, June, 115
He continues telling her,
"
'As you see, within our bodies each of us has the elements needed to produce phosphorus. And
let me tell you something I've never told a soul. My grandmother had a very interesting theory;
she said that each of us is born with a box of matches inside us but we can't strike them all by
ourselves; just as in the experiment, we need oxygen and a candle to help. In this case, the
oxygen, for example, would come from the breath of the person you love; the candle could be any
kind of food, music, caress, word, or sound that engenders the explosion that lights one of the
matches. For a moment we are dazzled by an intense emotion. A pleasant warmth grows within us,
fading slowly as time goes by, until a new explosion comes along to revive it. Each person has
to discover what will set off those explosions in order to live, since the combustion that occurs
when one of them is ignited is what nourishes the soul. That fire, in short, is its food. If one
doesn't find out in time what will set off these explosions, the box of matches dampens, and not
a single match will ever be lighted.
If that happens, the soul flees from the body and goes to wander among the deepest shades, trying
in vain to find food to nourish itself, unaware that only the body it left behind, cold and
defenseless, is capable of providing that food.'
How true these words were! Nobody knew it better than she.
Unfortunately, she had to admit that hew own matches were damp and moldy. No one would ever be
able to light another one again.
And the saddest thing was that she knew what set off her explosions, but each time she had managed
to light a match, it had persistently been blown out.
As if reading her thoughts, John went on.
'That's why it's important to keep your distance from people who have frigid breath. Just their
presence can put out the most intense fire, with results we're familiar with. If we stay a good
distance away from those people, it's easier to protect ourselves frrrrom being extinguished.' Taking
one of Tita's hands in his, he added simply, 'There are many ways to dry out a box of damp matches,
but you can be sure, there is a cure.'
Tita felt tears run down her face. Gently, John dried them with his handkerchief.
'You must of course take care to light the matches one at a time. If a powerful emotion should
ignite them all at once they would produce a splendor so dazzling that it would illuminate far
beyond what we can normally see; and then a brilliant tunnel would appear before our eyes, revealing
the path we forgot the moment we were born, and summoning us to regain the divine origin we had
lost. The soul ever longs to return to the place from which it came, leaving the body
lifeless. . . . Ever since my grandmother died, I have been trying to demonstrate this theory
scientifically. PErhaps someday I will succeed. What do you think?'
