pastorjeffcma wrote:
Nallia wrote:There are few books in their entirety that had a profound effect on me. I tend to find inspiration and life lessons in select passages of almost everything I read, and I read mostly fiction. For example:
1.
There is something profoundly cynical, my friends, in the
notion of paradise after death. The lure is evasion. The
promise is excusative. One need not accept responsibility
for the world as it is, and by extension, one need do nothing
about it. To strive for change, for true goodness in this
mortal world, one must acknowledge and accept, within
one's own soul, that this mortal reality has purpose in itself,
that its greatest value is not for us, but for our children
and their children. To view life as but a quick passage
along a foul, tortured path—made foul and tortured by our
own indifference—is to excuse all manner of misery and
depravity, and to exact cruel punishment upon the
innocent lives to come.
I defy this notion of paradise beyond the gates of bone.
If the soul truly survives the passage, then it behooves
us—each of us, my friends—to nurture faith in similitude:
what awaits us is a reflection of what we leave behind,
and in the squandering of our mortal existence, we
surrender the opportunity to learn the ways of goodness,
the practice of sympathy, empathy, compassion and healing—
all passed by in our rush to arrive at a place of glory
and beauty, a place we did not earn, and most certainly do
not deserve.
The Apocryphal Teachings of
Tanno Spiritwalker Kimloc
The Decade in Ehrlitan
From The Bonehunters, by Steven Erikson
2.
All dreams fetch with a silver call, and to some the belling of that treasured voice is irresistable. And in many quests, the silver turns to dross, while in others, it remains precious; but in the harsh crucibles of some quests, the silver is tranformed into ruthless metal...Yet what is done is done, and we cannot call it back, we cannot flee into yesterday.
That does not mean it is wrong to dream, nor does it mean one should not reach for a dream. But it does mean that all dreams exact a price: sometimes trivial, sometimes more than can be borne....
One cannot reach for a dream and remain unchanged, and that change is part of the cost of the dream. But when events go awry and disaster strikes, each of us who dreams must not let his spirit be crushed by the outcome.
A person can be safe and never reach for his dream, never risk failure, never expose his spirit to the dangers inherent, but then he will never reap the rewards of a dream realized, and he might never truly live.
King Durek of the dwarves
From, The Silver Call, by Dennis McKiernan
Those are some tremendous passages. There are two reasons that I say that. First, they beg me to respond to them. Second, they quicken a desire in me to read the works themselves. Although I would certainly take issue with the sentiment of the first, his expression is nonetheless poignant: The lure is evasion. The promise is excusative. I found a deep connection with the words from The Silver Call--especially, One cannot reach for a dream and remain unchanged, and that change is part of the cost of the dream. Thanks for sharing such powerful words.
See, the draw of the first passage for me is that I interpret it as saying, not that there is no afterlife, but that we cannot focus on bettering ourselves in order to reach our paradise without also focusing on making the world we live in a better place as well. 
The second is a passage I have read often. I have read it so much that I have it memorized now. It has helped me through many tragedies, including getting laid off three times, losing my father to death while I was across the country, and living through September 11th. It also has served as a wonderful inspirational piece, reminding me to not allow the fear of failure to keep me from trying.
Nallia wrote:
pastorjeffcma wrote:
Nallia wrote:There are few books in their entirety that had a profound effect on me. I tend to find inspiration and life lessons in select passages of almost everything I read, and I read mostly fiction. For example:
1.
There is something profoundly cynical, my friends, in the
notion of paradise after death. The lure is evasion. The
promise is excusative. One need not accept responsibility
for the world as it is, and by extension, one need do nothing
about it. To strive for change, for true goodness in this
mortal world, one must acknowledge and accept, within
one's own soul, that this mortal reality has purpose in itself,
that its greatest value is not for us, but for our children
and their children. To view life as but a quick passage
along a foul, tortured path—made foul and tortured by our
own indifference—is to excuse all manner of misery and
depravity, and to exact cruel punishment upon the
innocent lives to come.
I defy this notion of paradise beyond the gates of bone.
If the soul truly survives the passage, then it behooves
us—each of us, my friends—to nurture faith in similitude:
what awaits us is a reflection of what we leave behind,
and in the squandering of our mortal existence, we
surrender the opportunity to learn the ways of goodness,
the practice of sympathy, empathy, compassion and healing—
all passed by in our rush to arrive at a place of glory
and beauty, a place we did not earn, and most certainly do
not deserve.
The Apocryphal Teachings of
Tanno Spiritwalker Kimloc
The Decade in Ehrlitan
From The Bonehunters, by Steven Erikson
2.
All dreams fetch with a silver call, and to some the belling of that treasured voice is irresistable. And in many quests, the silver turns to dross, while in others, it remains precious; but in the harsh crucibles of some quests, the silver is tranformed into ruthless metal...Yet what is done is done, and we cannot call it back, we cannot flee into yesterday.
That does not mean it is wrong to dream, nor does it mean one should not reach for a dream. But it does mean that all dreams exact a price: sometimes trivial, sometimes more than can be borne....
One cannot reach for a dream and remain unchanged, and that change is part of the cost of the dream. But when events go awry and disaster strikes, each of us who dreams must not let his spirit be crushed by the outcome.
A person can be safe and never reach for his dream, never risk failure, never expose his spirit to the dangers inherent, but then he will never reap the rewards of a dream realized, and he might never truly live.
King Durek of the dwarves
From, The Silver Call, by Dennis McKiernan
Those are some tremendous passages. There are two reasons that I say that. First, they beg me to respond to them. Second, they quicken a desire in me to read the works themselves. Although I would certainly take issue with the sentiment of the first, his expression is nonetheless poignant: The lure is evasion. The promise is excusative. I found a deep connection with the words from The Silver Call--especially, One cannot reach for a dream and remain unchanged, and that change is part of the cost of the dream. Thanks for sharing such powerful words.
See, the draw of the first passage for me is that I interpret it as saying, not that there is no afterlife, but that we cannot focus on bettering ourselves in order to reach our paradise without also focusing on making the world we live in a better place as well.
The second is a passage I have read often. I have read it so much that I have it memorized now.
I appreciate the clarification. However, I think the reason the "elusive" and "excusative" language was important was because as an evangelical pastor that lives in that "heaven and hell" world, I know far too many people who operate in that escapism mode of thinking--so I think that a certain "earthly-mindedness" is quite important--or to put it another way, focus on your present home while you are anticipating your second one. Good stuff!
As I mentioned before the "dream" passage is pretty potent material. When I read it I could not help but think of the quote of C.S. Lewis from The Four Loves:
"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket--safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from the perturbations of love is Hell."
