Sydney Road Fabric Shops

 

A few months ago I did a little stroll along Sydney Road with an old friend. Whilst I thought she would like the bookshops and the mediterranean food, I did not realise she would be enthused by the row of fabric shops which extends from the Glenlyon to Albion Street corners. She bought several lengths of fabric and I have not caught up with her since to see whether they have become beautiful garments.

But we did enjoy the colours and atmosphere of these shops. They resemble bazaars with goods from faraway lands. An old Japanese legend from an old book which my parents bought for me in Japan comes to mind:

A poor man with nothing walks along the road. He stumbles and when he straightens up again, he notices a blade of straw on his shirt. Wisdom tells him that this may not be by chance, so he holds on to it. Not long after, a dragonfly buzzes around his head. After catching it, he ties it to the straw for his own amusement. Whilst walking along the road, he encounters a woman with her little boy, who pesters his mother to buy the beautiful dragonfly for him. The woman hands the man three oranges in exchange for the dragonfly. A little while later, the man encounters a merchant who has come upon hard times and cannot sell his cloth. The merchant is thirsty and tired. The man gives him the oranges and in gratitude, the cloth merchant gives him a bolt of beautiful cloth. And in the last part of the story, the poor man, carrying his beautiful cloth, is spotted by a noble lady who desires the cloth and rewards him richly for it.

To me this story is about beauty and luck. And the foresight to cling to a straw.