by Italo Calvino
Numbers in the Dark (1995)
* * * * (Great) Fable
A man's shoelace continues to come untied while he walks through town. The same, light-eyed man points out this frustrating fact to him, with increasing regularity.
There are days when no matter what you do, nothing goes right. And to have this fault pointed out to you repeatedly would make anyone upset. After the confrontation with the light-eyed man, we learn that the man never did learn how to tie his shoes. It was something that he didn't care to learn. When asked who would teach his kids to tie their shoes, he assumed someone else would teach them. The light-eyed man then asked what would happen if everyone only did the things they enjoyed? I think about this occasionally; for I am the man with untied shoelaces, relying on others to do the things I find, well, boring.
And beyond the moralizing, this is a story with some great descriptions. The setting and the man's feelings of growing frustration at the continued sight of this disapproving, light-eyed man are well realized in this short tale.
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