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

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