The Thread of Life

JAN BOLLAERT- Floral Einstein


Essay- satire


The Thread of Life

“The three Fates are Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos. Clotho spins the thread of life, Lachesis measures it and Atropos- cuts it.”

From Greek mythology

You will observe that the metaphor and the proverb are rolled up together like Cleopatra in the carpet for Julius Caesar. The three protagonists, a.k.a. the divine stooges, are stand-ins for circumstance, feasibility and ahem – ability… It makes a good composition and some could make a prize-winning photograph out of it. There they are, “The Fates” looking at the camera, wearing the Greek tailor’s props of cloth, measurement and the cut (unkind or otherwise).

The unwritten part, in such fateful discourse, is the role of that all important factotum named “timing” without which, all endeavour, no matter how “measured” and howsoever “cut” would whiz its way towards the bin of oblivion. So the key Robert Brucism, (he of the struggle and the spider fame), in all of this, is thus to do with a mandatory attitude of persistence and faith while we wait.

And here is the statutory warning for whatever it’s worth - we could, it must be realised, be waiting for a long time, days, years, decades, even lifetimes. Daunting as this sounds, we cannot allow it to shake us off when we are discussing “The Fates” with a capital letter to start each word. After all, “Service” as a concept may or may not be familiar to the arbiters of “The Fates.” The reactions too can be highly subjective and so not suitable as precedents or guides. I mean, if I am attended to quickly, helpfully and satisfyingly, I will go away praising the whole circus clearly and loudly. If, however, I am suspended on the hook till the last vestiges of my hope and cockiness have drooped and atrophied into an abyss beyond memory - I might not care very much about the explanations, however eloquent!

But meanwhile, back at the ranch, there is indeed a bit of a discussion going on. “Clotho” – says one worthy, “obviously the Greek cousin of metaphorical cloth, is imbued with the suggestion in above snippet that it has anima - a spirit, a soul, an innate ability to create itself. Further, that it comes, not really from the yarn-spinner’s gossamer, marvellous to behold as that would surely be, but from the very thread of life”.

“And here,” said the second worthy as I arrived at the ranch, not without kindness, “You were thinking you had unravelled the mystery of the last remaining unicorn!”

The thread of life. The thread of life. The phrase has a ring of infinity about it. But from my perspective the actors in positions 2 and 3 are decidedly finite mongrels not cut from the same Clotho at all. I mean, consider the measurer Lachesis and the cutter Atropos with a steady gaze for a spell. Lachesis, you’ll agree, because of his rather limiting function, has a decidedly utilitarian air about him devoid of poetry but echoing the very down-to earth attitudes of an auditor, a quartermaster, an issuer of provisions and the like. I can’t imagine Lachesis as well-dressed somehow even though he deals with the cloth made from the very “thread of life”. It’s as if he doesn’t care to be well turned out - not because he lacks vanity or self-respect, but because he holds us, his customers, in contempt for the habitual mess we make of our lives no matter how carefully he does his measuring and distributing. His friend and fellow henchman Atropos has an even more odious role in life - going around atrophying the product made up of the infinite threads is how scissors have acquired their negative image, master cutters notwithstanding!

The wags at the makeshift bar on the deep ranch veranda - were still, surprisingly, on the same topic.

“The measuring and the cutting makes the infinite thread of life something useful, not airy-fairy gossamer-like abstract,” says the first, always a bit wordy.

“Ever seen gossamer,” says the other, with the bluntness of a sledge-hammer.

This brought me back from my musings full-circle- back to the Greeks and the long lost age of mythology. To be fair, the Greeks hadn’t given top billing to Clotho as I had. In fact, Lachesis and Atropos were held in equally high standing. All three were “The Fates” with similar perks and travelling allowances. So, on balance, if the proverb about coats, cutting and cloth wants to be popular in 2005 and promote fashion to boot, it had better lay some emphasis on the artistry inherent in “The Fates” creating their seamless blend. Think of them, Mr. Proverb, as a trio of very harmonious bathroom singers and you’ll soon get the drift.

On my part, I’m off to the promontory at the edge of the garden to admire the rainbow that seems to have sprung up all of a sudden. And as for the wags - pleasantly tiddly by now, they are of the same accord, slightly unfocussed grins notwithstanding, and to prove it they come to lean over the veranda railing and start a fresh argument about the pot of gold instead.


(870 words)

By Ghatotkach
18 May 2005