The Daughter was weary at her spinning, and reflected aloud, "What if we really could spin coarse straw into fine, pure strands of gold?"

"If you could accomplish that miracle," her mother admonished, "the responsibility it would entail would tax and exhaust you — mind and body — far beyond the demands of the quotidian tasks you have been given. How blessed it is to live a human, limited life.

Autor: Isabel Anders