Thirty-nine: Almost there!

Sometimes it’s interesting to look at the paradoxes in life, even in our own personalities. What complicated critters we are, as is the world in which we live. Today I’m having fun juxtaposing quotations that reveal some of those complexities and seeming paradoxes.

28. “So do not worry, saying ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

—Matthew 6:31–33 (NIV)

29. Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

—Thomas A. Edison

30. “[W]hoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave.”

—Matthew 20:26–27 (NIV)

31. Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance.

—Samuel Johnson

32. “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.”

—Matthew 16:25 (NIV)

33. In our great hall there stood a vacant chair,
Fashion’d by Merlin ere he past away,
…………………………………………………..
And Merlin call’d it “The Siege perilous,”
Perilous for good and ill; “for there,” he said,
“No man could sit but he should lose himself:”
And once by misadvertence Merlin sat
In his own chair, and so was lost; but he,
Galahad, when he heard of Merlin’s doom,
Cried, “If I lose myself, I save myself!”

—Alfred, Lord Tennyson, from “The Holy Grail”

Thirty-nine: 13-15

Today’s quotations remind me how important it is, throughout life, to follow one’s own heart, vision, creativity; and to not worry about what others think.

13. They love to tell you, stay inside the lines.
But something’s better on the other side.
—John Mayer, “No Such Thing”

14. Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind.
—Samuel Johnson, The Rambler

15. [The writer] must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid; and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed—love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice.
—William Faulkner

Learning something every day

Sympathy

I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,
And the river flows like a stream of glass;
When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
And the faint perfume from its chalice steals—
I know what the caged bird feels!

I know why the caged bird beats its wing
Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;
For he must fly back to his perch and cling
When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;
And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
And they pulse again with a keener sting—
I know why he beats his wing!

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,—
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings—
I know why the caged bird sings!

Paul Laurence Dunbar, 1899

I found the above poem while researching Dunbar for my next edition of Lit for All. I don’t remember ever reading it before, though I was struck with the familiarity of the last line (as in the title of the Maya Angelou autobiography).

I had to wonder how I missed Dunbar through my years of English-degree coursework. As I read up on him now, I learn that he was popular and critically celebrated in his own time. Somehow, however, he didn’t make the canon. I can think of some reasons why not, and most of them make me sad. On the other hand, I am glad to learn that after many years of neglect, Dunbar’s work (including volumes of poetry, novels, short stories, even opera libretti) is being studied more widely, and there are several new editions of his works.

I must admit, however, that I am less concerned with what the established educational centers do than I am with an increasing sense of my own smallness and ignorance. What else have I been missing? Humorous as the analogy may be, I have to say “amen” to the following quote:

The analogy between body and mind is very general, and the parallel will hold as to their food, as well as any other particular. The flesh of animals who feed excursively is allowed to have a higher flavour than that of those who are cooped up. May there not be the same difference between men who read as their taste prompts, and men who are confined in cells and colleges to stated tasks?

James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, 1791

This reading as “taste prompts” is reportedly how Johnson gained his great breadth of knowledge; his is not a bad example to follow in that regard.

Today’s Poetry Friday roundup is hosted by Karen Edmisten.