Every once in a while I run across a passage that is so moving and inspiring, so resonates with me and speaks to my thoughts and feelings, I must share it with other people. Here is the latest:
...you are saved not in order to live
you have little time you must give testimony
be courageous when the mind deceives you be courageous
in the final account only this is important
and let your helpless Anger be like the sea
whenever you hear the voice of the insulted and beaten
let your sister Scorn not leave you
for the informers executioners cowards - they will win
they will go to your funeral and with relief throw a lump of earth
the woodborer will write your smoothed-over biography
and do not forgive truly it is not in your power
to forgive in the name of those betrayed at dawn
beware however of unnecessary pride
keep looking at your clown's face in the mirror
repeat: I was called - weren't there better ones than I...
(from The Envoy of Mr. Cogito by Zbigniew Herbert as quoted in The Liar's Club by Mary Karr)
I read this and had the feeling I had used to have in church as if the minister could read my mind and was speaking directly to me. I thought: yes, this is why I must write.
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