It’s The Clay

I ran across something quotable in Ray Bradbury’s novel, “Something Wicked This Way Comes.” It’s another one of his books I’ve never read but which I’m reading now.

“God, how we get our fingers in each other’s clay.” In the novel, it’s about how two friends influence each other.

On the one hand, it’s a seemingly trivial observation about human nature. On the other, it also seems profound because it’s so pervasive. You could reformulate it in any number of ways, e.g., “We’re always getting into each other’s business.”

The response is just as trivial. Mind your own business. Get out of my hair. I wonder how that song “My Way,” done famously by Frank Sinatra, could ever make sense when the reality is that we’re always either getting in each other’s way—or less often, always trying to integrate our approaches to create something better in our lives.

It’s kind of like what a former presidential campaign advisor (Wikipedia and other sources say it was James Carville) said, “It’s the economy, stupid.”

Maybe it’s the clay, partner.