Tuesday, February 22, 2011

22 February

Bread
2008

One of my Polish students spoke in class of the holiness of bread in his country, how when he was a child, if he dropped a piece of bread on the floor, he was taught to kiss it. He went on to tell the story of a baker he knew who went out of business because the government taxed him on the day-old bread he gave to the poor. The student called this, “not only stupid, but sinful.” A brief hush descended on the classroom, as if his perfect words in his new language had ever so slightly shifted a balance.

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