The Dance of Life - Metamorphosis

The art of living is based on rhythm – on give and take, ebb and flow, light and dark, life and death. By acceptance of all aspects of life, good and bad, right and wrong, yours and mine, the static, defensive life, which is what most people are cursed with, is converted into a dance, ‘the dance of life,’ metamorphosis. One can dance to sorrow or to joy; one can even dance abstractly … But the point is that, by the mere act of dancing, the elements which compose it are transformed; the dance is an end in itself, just like life. The acceptance of the situation, any situation, brings about a flow, a rhythmic impulse towards self-expression.

- Henry Miller: The Wisdom of the Heart

 

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault, Illustrated by Harry Clarke

The Moral

It scarce may be believed, 
This tale of Donkey-skin; 
But laughing children in the home;Y
ea, mothers, and grandmothers too, 
Are little moved by facts! 
By them 'twill be received.

 "Donkey-skin" illustration by Harry Clarke

 "It was with difficulty that he withdrew from this gloomy little alley, intent on discovering who the inmate of the tiny room might be. He was told that it was a scullion called Donkey-skin because of the skin which she always wore, and that she was so dirty and unpleasant that no one took any notice of her, or even spoke to her; she had just been taken out of pity to look after the geese."

 "CURIOSITY MADE HIM PUT HIS EYE TO THE KEYHOLE"

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29021/29021-h/29021-h.htm