Reading Notes W10: The Woman Who Makes Swell Doughnuts (Mori), Part A

I really enjoyed reading Mori's writing this week. You can tell from his writing that he has a very deep appreciation for everyday life. In "The Woman Who Makes Swell Doughnuts", Mori describes an elderly woman, who has been through a lot in her life, working hard and raising a family, and creating a home. The narrator has a very deep appreciation for this women and the environment that she has created, and he makes it very clear. He not only enjoys her cooking (which is amazing), but he also enjoys the simplicity of her company. He talks about how there are long moments of silence when they are together, and that both of them are perfectly fine with the silence. He says that he likes that he is not pressured or expected to talk to her about anything deep or meaningful, or anything at all for that matter. He feels like this woman and her home is like the calm I the middle of a storm. Outside of her her home the world is large, crazy, and overwhelming, but inside of her home and her spirit, there is a calmness unlike anything else. She is an average person, living a normal life, and yet our narrator has so much respect for her that he chooses to praise this woman as if she is someone who will go down in the history books. Mori shares this immense respect for the average person in a couple of his stories that we read this week, and I really enjoyed reading his work because it made me think deeply about just how important average people, like this old woman and the truck driver in "He Who Has the Laughing Face" are, because although there are many famous and rich people that achieve great things, it is the average person that really makes this world what it is at it's core, and I think we should have more appreciation for the people we come across in our everyday lives.