tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3792904819726809319.post7648580437515498562..comments2023-05-28T02:46:30.010-07:00Comments on MoHo Dilemma: To Die Will Be An Awfully Big AdventureOrry koonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16475155905058837459noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3792904819726809319.post-91241571026583605392009-03-03T18:28:00.000-08:002009-03-03T18:28:00.000-08:00David, I think it is the circular, having the begi...David, I think it is the circular, having the beginning of a child then the growth of growing up and peering through the glass darkly and then becoming like unto a child again, willing to submit to our father. <br><br>Going along with something you said on facebook, there is a difference from being childish and childlike. Childish is immaturity and self-centeredness. Childlike is humility, submitting our will to God's. <br><br>I see the circular process you described not only as a process we go through at various times of our life, but as THE pattern of life. We all start out as children and learn and grow. We become confident, sometimes even arrogant in our knowledge and abilities. We accumulate wealth and feel independent. Then as we age, we soften, our bodies become worn out. We become more humble again, more reliant on the Lord, even more childlike. We often leave this life much like we came into it, weak and dependent upon others. The difference is that hopefully along the way we have blessed the lives of others, learned the lessons we were sent here to learn, and gained wisdom that we take as our souvenir into the next life.Bravonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02762204502534599107noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3792904819726809319.post-10247521850242396702009-03-02T23:24:00.000-08:002009-03-02T23:24:00.000-08:00It's the latter. One of my all-time favorite ...It's the latter. One of my all-time favorite excerpts from one of my all-time favorite authors, T.S. Eliot, said the same thing and more in "Little Gidding" from the Four Quartets. He talks about the paradoxes of life and ends and beginnings. Note especially the part that begins "We shall not cease from exploration". And forgive the length, but I think you'll really like all of it:<br><br>What we call the beginning is often the end<br>And to make an end is to make a beginning.<br>The end is where we start from. And every phrase<br>And sentence that is right (where every word is at home,<br>Taking its place to support the others,<br>The word neither diffident nor ostentatious,<br>An easy commerce of the old and the new,<br>The common word exact without vulgarity,<br>The formal word precise but not pedantic,<br>The complete consort dancing together)<br>Every phrase and every sentence is an end and a beginning,<br>Every poem an epitaph. And any action<br>Is a step to the block, to the fire, down the sea's throat<br>Or to an illegible stone: and that is where we start.<br>We die with the dying:<br>See, they depart, and we go with them.<br>We are born with the dead:<br>See, they return, and bring us with them.<br>The moment of the rose and the moment of the yew-tree<br>Are of equal duration. A people without history<br>Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern<br>Of timeless moments. So, while the light fails<br>On a winter's afternoon, in a secluded chapel<br>History is now and England.<br><br>With the drawing of this Love and the voice of this Calling<br><br>We shall not cease from exploration<br>And the end of all our exploring<br>Will be to arrive where we started<br>And know the place for the first time.<br>Through the unknown, remembered gate<br>When the last of earth left to discover<br>Is that which was the beginning;<br>At the source of the longest river<br>The voice of the hidden waterfall<br>And the children in the appletree<br>Not known, because not looked for<br>But heard, halfheard, in the stillness<br>Between two waves of the sea.<br>Quick now, here, now, always-<br>A condition of complete simplicity<br>(Costing not less than everything)<br>And all shall be well and<br>All manner of thing shall be well<br>When the tongues of flame are infolded<br>Into the crowned knot of fire<br>And the fire and the rose are one.Alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02992194211469009236noreply@blogger.com