“It's hard sometimes to remember why we do anything in the first place. It's nice to think there's a purpose, or even a real decision that turns everything in one direction, but that's not always true, is it? We just fall into our lives."
A new member of a foreign country, Sepha comes to realize that life has a way of surprising you. He looks for meaning in his surroundings, but the truth is he doesn't always find any. As he comes to learn, he doesn't have all that much input in his life. It's as if he's fulfilling a path laid before him by somebody else, but he didn't realize it until one moment he looks backwards in time.
"I remember another aphorism of my father's, one that he used to say whenever we passed someone pissing openly in the street: add color to life when you can."
These sayings of his father help Sepha to keep his native culture close to him. In Ethiopia he witnessed a great deal of poverty and crime. His father was a strong role model in these circumstances because he was a skilled, deliberate optimist. As demonstrated in this quotation, Sepha's dad viewed even things like public urination as examples of diversity and vibrancy.
“Inside the front flap of the book were handwritten names of the dozen or so people who had checked the book out before Naomi. Instead of writing her name, Naomi had a thin paper receipt with the due date printed on it. She could never possess this book the way those other people had. It was one of those uselessly nostalgic and sentimental thoughts that serve only our own romantic ideals, but I couldn't help believing it was true nonetheless. I took a pencil out from behind the register and handed it to her.”
Sepha is a man of romance. He wants to believe in the more beautiful, intangible parts of life. With Naomi, he sees a soul of his own kind, longing for a deeper meaning to things. By handing her the pencil to write her name in the book, he is encouraging her not to abandon her pursuit of the good and the beautiful.
