Friday, September 5, 2008

A Severe Mercy

An incredible excerpt I ran across while reading A Severe Mercy.

"So, if he wanted the heights of joy, he must have, if he could find it, a great love. But in the books again, great joy through love seemed always to go hand in hand with frightful pain. Still, he thought, looking out across the meadow, still, the joy would be worth the pain--if, indeed, they went together. If there were a choice--and he suspected there was--a choice between, on the one hand, the heights & depths and, on the other hand, some sort of safe, cautious middle way, he, for one, here & now chose the heights & the depths.

Since then the years had gone by, & he--had he not had what he chose that day in the meadow? He had had the love. And the joy--what joy it had been? And the sorrow. He had had--was having--all the sorrow there was. And yet, the joy was worth the pain. Even now he reaffirmed that long-past choice."  Glenmerle Revisited

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