“I Am Not Yours”

Hello readers!

I think I might be getting a little personal today, but hopefully you won’t mind that terribly much. While I’m working on some new stuff that I’ll be posting soon, I came across this poem by Sara Teasdale and was immediately struck by how it seems to speak every romantic relationship I’ve ever had. It’s a little tragic, and there have been a couple of men that I have loved in my life, loved them because they truly were “a spirit beautiful and bright.” However,  for some reason or other, I haven’t met the person able to eradicate all the doubts in my heart and mind. There has always been something lacking that kept me from fulling being able to trust them with my heart. From what I’ve been told by many happily married women, when you meet the right person, it’s really doesn’t take very long to know whether or not that person is for you.

Anyway, I was just thunderstruck by how accurate this poem is my love life thus far. It doesn’t change the status quo (and by no means do I have any right to complain). We females just love to feel understood, and it was quite heartening to find a piece of beautiful writing that captures this sentiment of mine so accurately, that I remain women who longs to be “lost as light is lost in light” (such a great line!).

In the meantime, God is taking care of me, and I know He has my best interest at heart.

Well, as always, happy reading ❤

I Am Not Yours

by Sara Teasdale

I am not yours, not lost in you,
Not lost, although I long to be
Lost as a candle lit at noon,
Lost as a snowflake in the sea.

You love me, and I find you still
A spirit beautiful and bright,
Yet I am I, who longs to be
Lost as a light is lost in light.

Oh plunge me deep in love — put out
My senses, leave me deaf and blind,
Swept by the tempest of your love,
A taper in a rushing wind.

C.S. Lewis excerpt from “Why I am not a Pacifist”

Hello readers!

Today, I make good on my promise that this page would be a mixture of all different types of posts, not just my original writing, not just poetry or short stories, but posts featuring a notable writer or topic. In light of all the political developments surrounding the coming election, I’ve been in a bit of a mood, one that wishes to discuss important issues, not just sweep them under the rug and avoid them in conversation like so many would like to do simply to keep conversation light and uncontroversial. It is true than many people lack the ability to discuss politics in a scholarly objective manner, and so I very much understand the reasoning behind trying to avoid unnecessary tension in a group setting. I myself find it hard not to become frustrated with those who simply rufuse to see the truth. I know you all have encountered those described in this quote (also from the same address as the longer excerpt below by C.S. Lewis):

Every teacher knows that people are constantly protesting that they “can’t see” some self-evident inference, but the supposed inability is usually a refusal to see, resulting either from some passion which wants not to see the truth in question or else from sloth which does not want to think at all.”

When I encounter individuals with whom there is no discussing anything that differs with their own opinion, those who are not interesting in seeking truth for its own sake, but rather more interested in proving me wrong, there comes a time when one must simply be kind, understanding,  and patient (which many times is no easy task).

Anyway, the excerpt I have today is not meant to inspire any heated arguments that end in belittling tones or name-calling, but really just something that made me think. I am most definitely not a pacifist, but I hadn’t really found something that made such good points simply based on logic. I have my own personal beliefs, but not everyone shares those, so I simply wanted to share something that supports my views simply on the basis of reason.

With that, here is a little of C.S. Lewis’ lecture that was delivered to a pacifist society in Oxford sometime in 1940. I encourage anyone intrigued by this excerpt to read whole lecture found in The Weight of Glory, a collection of many of his topical addresses and sermons.

As always, happy reading!

Excerpt from “Why I Am Not a Pacifist”

First to the facts. The main relevant fact admitted by all parties is that war is very disagreeable. The main contention urged as fact by Pacifists would be that wars always do more harm than good. How is one to find out whether this is true? It belongs to a class of historical generalisations which involve a comparison between the actual consequences of some actual event and a consequence which might have followed if that event had not occurred. “Wars do no good” involves the proposition that if the Greeks had yielded to Xerxes and the Romans to Hannibal, the course of history ever since would have been perhaps better, but certainly no worse than it actually has been; that a Mediterranean world in which Carthaginian power succeeded Persian would have been at least as good and happy and as fruitful for all posterity as the actual Mediterranean world in which Roman power succeeded Greek. My point is not that such an opinion seems to me overwhelmingly improbable. My point is that both opinions are merely speculative; there is no conceivable way of convincing a man of either. Indeed it is doubtful whether conception of “what would have happened” — that is, of unrealised possibilities — is more than an imaginative technique for giving a vivid rhetorical account of what did happen.

That wars do no good is then so far from being a fact that it hardly ranks as a historical opinion. Nor is the matter mended by saying “modern wars”; how are we to decide whether the total effect would have been better or worse if Europe had submitted to Germany in 1914? It is, of course, true that wars never do half the good which the leaders of the belligerents say they are going to do. Nothing ever does half the good — perhaps nothing ever does half the evil — which is expected of it. And that may be a sound argument for not pitching one’s propaganda too high. But it is no argument against war. If a Germanised Europe in 1914 would have been an evil, then the war which would have prevented that evil would have been, so far, justified. To call it useless because it did not also cure slums and unemployment is like coming up to a man who has just succeeded in defending himself from a man-eating tiger and saying, “It’s no good, old chap. This hasn’t really cured your rhuematism!”

On the test of fact then, I find the Pacifist position weak. It seems to me that history is full of useful wars as well of useless wars. If all that can be brought against the frequent appearance of utility is mere speculation about what would have happened, I am not converted.”

Sir Walter Foss – “A House by the Side of the Road”

Hello readers!

I came across a lovely poem just now by Sir Walter Foss, and I love that it speaks to mankind’s need for community. I’ll say little more than that it warmed my heart reading it, because it reminded me of how we all wish to live in a place where we can call on our fellow neighbor, a friend, or even a stranger for help. Whether it be to ask  for that cliche’ cup of sugar (if we’re being real, sometimes a plunger :)), or in my case, some shampoo and conditioner when running late for work and there’s no time to run to the store, regardless, whether you wish it or not, we all need other people in our lives … and they need us.

Personally I’m also reminded of Romans 12:15-16a , “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.”

Alrighty… as always, happy reading!

THE HOUSE BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD

“He was a friend to man, and lived

In a house by the side of the road.” ~Homer

 

There are hermit souls that live withdrawn

In the place of their self-content;

There are souls like stars, that dwell apart,

In the fellowless firmament;

There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths

Where highways never ran —

But let me live by the side of the road

And be a friend to man.

 

Let me live in a house by the side of the road,

Where the race of men go by —

The men who are good and the men who are bad,

As good and as bad as I.

I would not sit in the scorner’s seat,

Or hurl the cynic’s ban —

Let me live in a house by the side of the road

And be a friend to man.

 

I see from my house by the side of the road

By the side of the highway of life,

The men who press with the ardor of hope,

The men who are faint with the strife.

But I turn not away from their smiles nor their tears,

Both parts of an infinite plan —

Let me live in a house by the side of the road

And be a friend to man.

 

I know there are brook-gladdened meadows ahead

And the mountains of wearisome height;

That the road passes on through the long afternoon

And stretches away to the night.

But still I rejoice when the travelers rejoice,

And weep with the strangers than moan,

Nor live in my house by the side of the road

Like a man who dwells alone.

 

Let me live in my house by the side of the road —

It’s here the race of men go by.

They are good, they are bad, they are weak, they are strong,

Wise foolish — so am I;

Then why should I sit in the scorner’s seat,

Or hurl the cynic’s ban?

Let me live in my house by the side of the road

And be a friend to man.

Emily Dickinson’s “If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking”

Hello again readers!

I know I’ve already posted once today, but I was just reading through a book, Best Remembered Poems, and saw this little treasure of a thought. Emily Dickinson can be really hard to understand sometimes, but in this poem, she makes it easy (not to mention echoes the sentiments in my soul!)

Happy reading.

IF I CAN STOP ONE HEART FROM BREAKING

If I can stop one heart from breaking,

I shall not live in vein;

If I can ease one life the aching,

Or cool one pain,

Or help one fainting robin

Unto his nest again,

I shall not live in vain.

♥