what a good book. (Robert Penn Warren) all the elements of a good novel; character development, philosophy, drama, suspense, history, descriptive settings, human nature, good vs evil and exploration of how there might be good in the worst of us and bad in the best of us. Would be a great book to do a book club on because there is so much material for debate/discussion whether it be politics, religion, human nature, ethics, etc etc. It was especially interesting to me at this point because I am still struggling with what I believe in regarding all these topics. I am continually bemused and get frequently frustrated with the automatic categorizing that goes in the human mind. I have noticed that most people, including myself, take a small number of known facts about another person and quickly and thoughtlessly catorgorize them in a group of "similar" people. Along with this categorization is the assumption that I immediately know how this "type" of person would vote politically, how they would react in certain situations, what their values are, how they entertain themselves, and then assign that person a certain value based upon those assumptions. "This one is a redneck. That one is a snobby country club republican. This one is a no-account lazy bum. That one is a yuppie city slicker." and on and on and on. And usually, I come out superior in some way or another to all those groups and feel better than and more intelligent simply because i can place a person in a category: it must mean i immediately know everything worthwhile there is to know about a person. And I, of course, defy all categories and am the only one who can see the world with a clear eye. what nonsense my ego speaks. i am right in my beliefs than they are either wrong, stupid, greedy, selfish, etc. And then on the next day I may find myself in a place where I feel LESS than all these categories. I am the worst, everyone else has some redeeming qualities. The all or nothing, right or wrong, good or evil, black or white, dualistically-entrenched mind which stems from the Tree of Knowledge.
The problem comes in purples, greens and oranges. They are not black or white. Right or wrong. Less than or greater than. They are simply different from eachother in mood, hue, intensity, temperature. Who can judge which one is the most valuable, which one is the nicest, which one is the right one. So, with this knowledge I try not to judge, not to categorize, not to assign value. But impossible...the categorizing is automatic, built-in, involuntary. Except when I read books like this and am reminded again that we know very little of the inner secrets, pains, ambitions, dreams, worships, loves of even the people we know best. We can only scratch the surface. Therefore it is useless and foolish to categorize. We must draw out other people, understand how we are similar, weep for the communal sorrows and disappointments, be comforted with the common joys of a sunny day and laughing children.
Compassion and humility...the two attributes hardest to come by and the most valuable to have.
Quote from the book:
"The creation of man whom God in his foreknowledge knew doomed to sin was the awful index of God's omnipotence. For it would have been a thing of trifling and contemptible ease for Perfection to create mere perfection. To do so would, to speak truth, be not creation but extension. Separateness is identity and the only way for God to create, truly create, man was to make him separate from God Himself, and to be separate from God is to be sinful. The creation of evil is therefore the index of God's glory and His power. That had to be so that the creation of good might be the index of man's glory and power. But by God's help. By His help and in His wisdom."
