“It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, since that is the end of all mankind, and the living should take it to heart” (Ecclesiastes 7:2).
I am no more abruptly saddened than when something good happens to me. Following every peak is an inevitable decline, and everything good will come to an end. I would sooner live a stoic existence, because if I never had reason to be elated or excited, I would never feel disappointed. I wouldn’t know the happiness I was missing, and wouldn’t have anything to compare to its absence once it was inevitably gone. For example, when I am excited about my feelings for a guy and his feelings for me, my excitement quickly turns to doom once something finally happens between us. I know that it can end in nothing but sadness. I will have to leave and go back to school (or, leave school and come home again), and suffer the misery of pining. Or even worse, I will discover that I don’t like the guy as much as I thought (or vice versa), leaving me let down, confused and disillusioned. So it is better for me not to become attached to anyone or anything, anywhere I find myself. Ecstasy makes normalcy feel like death, and happiness is fleeting, so I am better off maintaining constant sorrow—it is the only sure thing in life. After all, life is fleeting, and the only things worth doing on this earth are not done for this earth at all, but for the house of the Lord. Everything on Earth is futile, and only things done for the Kingdom of Heaven will bring true and abiding happiness.
I think C.S. Lewis said, "The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell."
ReplyDeleteActually, I know he said it, in the book 'the Four Loves'. A wise man, C.S. Lewis. You two have much in common.
Wow, thanks for that, Drew. C.S. Lewis is awesome. And how entirely true... There is no escaping it here on Earth. I just wish I weren't growing so increasingly tired and more perturbed...
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