Below are a few quotations from the beginning of Wendell Berry's novel Hannah Coulter. The novel begins at the end, takes you to the story's middle, beginning and end all within its first pages...and by then the reader is enthralled.
"Our story is the story of our place: how we married and came here, moved into this old house and made it livable again while we lived in it; how we raised our children here, and worked and hoped and paid the mortgage...how we continued,m,asking our life here day by day, after the children were gone; how we kept this place alive and plentiful..." (Hannah Coulter, 5).
"So close to the end now, what do I look forward to? 'Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.' Some morning, I pray, I'll have the good happiness of 'the man who woke up dead,' who Burley Coulter used to tell about" (Hannah Coulter, 5).
"This is my story, my giving of thanks" (Hannah Coulter, 5).
You can find a copy of Hannah Coulter on Amazon.com
0 Comments
An entry that leads to another site...I have not seen other pages on this link, but the page I refer you to is one that came up when I looking around for phrases and words to end a letter written to your child. The search was not fruitful toward answering my question, but lead down a few paths, this one worth sharing at a bog entitled Zen Habits. The underlying and overt positives from the post is love and particularly love through friendship. A natural friendship that comes about will lead us to live a good life, but it is such a friendship that we can then lift to make divine. As we live selflessly for another, a friend, we do not expect reciprocation but rather a closeness and intimacy that will allow us to become closer to God. Zen habits does have it the notion of life as journey...it is what end is our journey that will assist us in keeping on our path. The first time I heard the phrase "homo viator" was in the context of an introduction to Gabriel Marcel. I have not gone beyond that introduction, but the idea of man as a traveler has stuck with me ever since.
I hope to place a few words daily or thereabouts along the journey or travels that we are on...some of us reject or just ignore that our end is somewhere outside of ourselves, back with our Creator. The time spent alive on earth is our only time, so we must make the best of it and keep it going as long as possible...a journey to really nowhere. Man is unfulfilled today and only a few are searching...a key to our travels are fellow pilgrims, travellers... Love and friendship are not possible for those who are autonomous, isolated, in no need of completion with another; all relationships are then temporary, out of necessity, or desire but only until the pleasure is gone or the desire fulfilled. Love and friendship are really unnecessary for the postmodern man. The entries that are to follow are more in the line with those who may not know the Truth or even have faith, but are on a journey toward something beyond man. Travelers searching or those who may know where they are heading, are not alone. My intentions are as "Gabriel Marcel put it, 'Nothing is lost for the man who lives a great love or a true friendship, but all is lost for him who is alone'" (Self-Esteem without Selfishness, p.27) Let us begin our journey together. Comments are welcome, but know that my repsonses may be sparse and concise...those who offend will be ignored or deleted. |