A bit of prose got stuck in my brain

[quesarah]

That night I thought long and not without despair about what must become of me. I wanted very much to be a person of value and I had to ask myself how this could be possible if there were not something like a soul or like a spirit that is in the life of a person and which could endure any misfortune or disfigurement and yet be no less for it. If one were to be a person of value that value could not be a condition subject to the hazards of fortune. It had to be a quality that could not change. No matter what. Long before morning I knew that what I was seeking to discover was a thing I'd always known. That all courage was a form of constancy. That it was always himself that the coward abandoned first. After this all other betrayals came easily.

-Cormac McCarthy, All The Pretty Horses

Comments

watching the words fly over my head/or call me clueless

[joebanks.livejournal.com]

I'll stick my neck out here and ask: what are you driving at? Are you talking about the existance of a soul, about character, values???
Give me a clue and we'll start from there

Re: watching the words fly over my head/or call me clueless

[biogeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

Now now, that isn't how it works. What do you think it means?

Re: watching the words fly over my head/or call me clueless

[joebanks.livejournal.com]

I think I stuck out more then my neck.
But it's very late and I'm going to cop out on you-for tonight. I'm baking Ethans birthday cake and-it's late.
but I'll be back

what!?

[joebanks.livejournal.com]

I should have kept out of it but i didn't. We watched the Wizard of Oz today and of course the whole Cowardly Lion thing is in there. Sedona comments that she is least fond of the Lion and his part. I had to agree he has always made me uncomfortable; probably because I am not brimming with courage; so I guess long, long ago i "abandoned myself first".
I always saw myself as more of a truth person, that would be my goal as a defining value. I don't buy the idea of more then one truth. There is what there is and then; then everyone can like it or not or have a different take on it. But i think i'm not to good at the truth either.
But we have to come back to why did it stick your brain; i've embarrassed myself with my non-answer.
Well i hope this gets lost in the mists of time and space.

Re: what!?

[biogeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

I like the notion it brings up of certain fundamental truths about a person's character. You are who you are, and if you're a "person of value" ie a decent human being, no outward trauma or injury can change that. All manner of horrible things can happen to a decent person, and it will never change the fact that they're a good person. Cowardice is giving up your principles because it's too difficult to maintain them in the face of hardship.

For the record, I do not think you abandoned yourself first. On the contrary, I think you have never abandoned yourself.

Re: what!?

[joebanks.livejournal.com]

let me think about that for another week

[joebanks.livejournal.com]

Here we are Sun. again already. I had typed into Yahoo: life sucks and then you die (i was in a good mood you know) after about 60 entry's i come across some poor girls live journal; i guess by that name. Well i don't want to be reading that so out of curiosity i type in joebanks to see if i'll show up; i don't find me but i find a few different pieces on the movie "Joe vs. the Volcano". One discussion tells of how the movie is about "Courage and overcoming fear, and your destiny, discovering who you are..."

Very similar (i believe) to what you and your piece of stuck prose are discussing. This i get; this and a struggle with the destiny i seem to have chosen for myself. The courage to face my choices.

What's the red X that are on my entry's?

[biogeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

The courage to face my choices.

This is what the piece is getting at, to my reckoning. That, and the idea that you will always be strong enough to follow through on the destiny you choose for yourself.

The red X's are in case you want to delete your post. If you decide you made a mistake or left something out, you can delete it and then post a new message.