A nobility of meekness is a beautiful thing, but to arrive there, you must go by the way of ignobility and humiliation. You must forget about yourself as an individual, as a thinking, rational being, as an entity taking up space. These things will be added later, but at the beginning of the process, you are robbed of the accoutrements of nobility and gentlemanliness.
And when you've lived for a while in that sadness, with meekness, you soon realize that there is nothing sad about the place where you are. You become aware of the bottom-of-the-well-place where you have lived, and you simply begin to climb up.
The only wisdom we can hope to acquire
Is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless.
- T.S. Eliot, The Four Quartets
2 comments:
Wow Curtis. ... Was this piece all Eliot, or, just the last phrase ? (unclear to me).
Mother Teresa spoke recently to me, through one of her quotes, about humility. She said, 'the only way to learn humilty, is to accept humiliations.' We do not learn it in a dictionary or a class or a study.
And as you (or Eliot) say, the
nobility of meekness...will be added later.
An outstanding Gospel book, for a most definitive read, (at least, I have found no better) is Mother Teresa's No Greater Love.
Thnkx for providing my Life-reinforcement today.
Onward we follow--after The suffering, meek, humbled One, who rules and forms, and holds together, all the galaxies.
(I wish a knew a latin phrase to end with...that would say something crisp -- and eloquent - about the supreme paradox of His power and His lowliness.)
Latin, anyone?
blessings little brother --
Nj
Hey,
The last couple of lines were from Eliot, and the first part was a journal entry from last month. All certainly influenced by Eliot, though. He had such an amazing understanding of the nature of Man's position relative to God, but it seems like he and Christ were two ships passing in the night - I often wonder whether he came to a full knowledge of the grace of God before he died.
Anyway, much of my poetry begins at where he left off - he left so many doors ajar, and I would like to close them in the same poetic fashion that he opened them.
Great to hear from you Naomi! (that is you, right ..? haha..).
In Christ,
Curtis
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