Did you ever read Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude?

It’s an amazing book. Though I read it long ago and have forgotten much more than what I remember, there is one aspect of one character that has stayed with me.

It’s Colonel Aureliano Buendia, who at one point, starts a business making little gold fish. He sells them and uses the money to buy more gold, which he melts down and uses to make little gold fish. He sells them, buys more gold, melts it down, makes more little fish, sells them, buys more gold….

And then he sees a way to simplify the process. He drops one step in the cycle. Instead of selling the fish, he just melts them down and uses the gold to make more. He makes the little gold fish, melts them down, makes more. He melts them down, he makes more.

I think of him because one of the first things I do after a show, is buy kimono silk. It’s so beautiful I cannot resist. Even though my shelves are overflowing, I continue to buy these gorgeous silks, make jackets and coats, sell them and then, at my first opportunity, buy more.