Poem: Enemies

If you are not to become a monster,
you must care what they think.
If you care what they think,

how will you not hate them,
and so become a monster
of the opposite kind? From where then

is love to come—love for your enemy
that is the way of liberty?
From forgiveness. Forgiven, they go

free of you, and you of them;
they are to you as sunlight
on a green branch. You must not

think of them again, except
as monsters like yourself,
pitiable because unforgiving.

                    Wendell Berry 

Lucky

If you care about something you have to protect it.
If you're lucky enough to find a way of life you love,
you have to find the courage to live it.

                    John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting and giving

The purpose of getting power is to be able to give it away.

            Aneurin Bevan, in Aneurin Bevan by Michael Foot

A gate of fire

We have entered the third millennium through a gate of fire.
If today, after the horror of 11 September, we see better, and we see further —
we will realize that humanity is indivisible.
New threats make no distinction between races, nations or regions.
A new insecurity has entered every mind, regardless of wealth or status.
A deeper awareness of the bonds that bind us all —
in pain as in prosperity — has gripped young and old.

                    Kofi Annan, Nobel lecture 

 

 

 

 

 

Tiring and frightening

I think housework is far more tiring and frightening
than hunting is, no comparison,
and yet after hunting we had eggs for tea
and were made to rest for hours,
but after housework people expect one to go on
just as if nothing special had happened.

                Nancy Mitford, The Pursuit of Love 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only reality

Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved!
That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly.
It is the one thing we are interested in here.

                Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

 

 

 

 

 

Above and beyond

Our Creator would never have made such lovely days,
    and have given us the deep hearts to enjoy them,
        above and beyond all thought,
            unless we were meant to be immortal.

                            Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Old Manse