“Police business,” he said almost gently, “is a hell of a problem. It’s a good deal like politics. It asks for the highest type of men, and there’s nothing in it to attract the highest type of men. So we have to work with what we get…”
–The Lady in the Lake (1943)
The True Christmas
So stick up ivy and the bays,
And then restore the heathen ways.
Green will remind you of the spring,
Though this great day denies the thing.
And mortifies the earth and all
But your wild revels, and loose hall.
Could you wear flowers, and roses strow
Blushing upon your breasts’ warm snow,
That very dress your lightness will
Rebuke, and wither at the ill.
The brightness of this day we owe
Not unto music, masque, nor show:
Nor gallant furniture, nor plate;
But to the manger’s mean estate.
His life while here, as well as birth,
Was but a check to pomp and mirth;
And all man’s greatness you may see
Condemned by His humility.
Then leave your open house and noise,
To welcome Him with holy joys,
And the poor shepherd’s watchfulness:
Whom light and hymns from heaven did bless.
What you abound with, cast abroad
To those that want, and ease your load.
Who empties thus, will bring more in;
But riot is both loss and sin.
Dress finely what comes not in sight,
And then you keep your Christmas right.–Henry Vaughan
Henry Vaughan (1621 − April 23, 1695) was a Welsh physician and metaphysical poet. For more information look here.
Thomas Raymond Kelly (1893-January 17, 1941) was an American Quaker educator. He taught and wrote on the subject of mysticism. His books are widely read, especially by people interested in spirituality.
Kelly’s life was full of disappointment. In 1936, after years of teaching jobs across the country, he was finally offered a position in the philosophy department at Haverford College. His dissertation for his second Ph.D. (from Harvard) was published, and all he still needed to do was pass the oral defense of that dissertation. Then he lived out the nightmare of every Ph.D. candidate: he lost his memory during his oral exam. Harvard not only failed him on the defense, they also informed him that he would never be allowed a second chance.
His son wrote, “There is no exact record of what happened in the following weeks, but it is certain that sometime during the months of November or December, 1937, a change was wrought within the very foundation of his soul. He described it as being ‘shaken by the experience of Presence — something that I did not seek, but that sought me ….’ Stripped of his defenses and human self-justification, he found, for the first time, a readiness to accept the outright gift of God’s Love, and he responded with unlimited commitment to that leading. His teaching colleague Douglas Steere, who spent uncounted hours walking Kelly through his grief, later wrote of his healing: ‘He moved toward adequacy. A fissure in him seemed to close, cliffs caved in and filled up a chasm, and what was divided grew together within him. Science, scholarship, method remained good, but in a new setting’.” (Jerry R. Flora: “Searching for an Adequate Life: The Devotional Theology of Thomas R. Kelly”, Spirituality Today, Spring 1990)
Kelly received word on January 17, 1941 that Harper and Brothers wanted to meet with him to discuss the publication of a devotional book. “Today will be the greatest day of my life,” he told his wife. He died of a heart attack later that same day while drying the dinner dishes. Three months later his friend Steere submitted five of Kelly’s devotional essays to the publisher along with a biographical sketch of Kelly. The book was published under the title A Testament of Devotion.
There is a divine Abyss within us all, a holy Infinite Center, a Heart, a Life who speaks in us and through us to the world. We have all heard this holy Whisper at times. At times we have followed the Whisper, and amazing equilibrium of living set in. But too many of us have heeded the Voice only at times. We have not counted this Holy Thing within us to be the most precious thing in the world. We have not surrendered all else, to attend to it alone.
Let me repeat, most of us, I fear, have not surrendered all else, in order to attend to the Holy Within.
–from A Testament of Devotion
Life is sad and mysterious. Terrible things happen. Read this book by Thomas Kelly. It is full of good stuff.
On the spiritual journey, there is usually someone in our family, business or community whom we cannot endure, someone who has a genius for bringing out the worst in us. No matter what we do, we cannot seem to improve the relationship. They have not done anything to cause it. God simply uses them to reflect back to us what our problem is. Thus the person who gives us the most trouble may be our greatest gift from God.
–Thomas Keating
I’ve always been drawn to ruins — whether that has anything to do with where I grew up, I leave to your imagination — but I think Mervyn Peake got it exactly right when he wrote in his magnificent Gormenghast trilogy:
“Titus sat down by the side of the road and frowned. He had been born and bred to the assumption that buildings were ancient by nature, and were and always had been in the process of crumbling away. The white dust lolling between the gaping bricks; the worm in the wood; the weed dislodging the stone; corrosion and mildew; the crumbling patina; the fading shades; the beauty of decay.”
I was not crazy about this bestseller by Muriel Barberry. But I thought this passage was spot-on perfect about the feeling one has as a high-schooler in a choir. I felt the same way when I would attend a band or orchestra or choir concert back when my children were in school.
“Every time, it’s the same thing. I feel like crying, my throat goes all tight and I do the best I can to control myself but sometimes it gets close: I can hardly keep myself from sobbing. So when they sing a canon I look down at the ground because it’s just too much emotion at once: it’s beautiful, and everyone singing together, this marvelous sharing. I’m no longer myself, I am just one part of a sublime whole, to which the others also belong, and I always wonder at such moments why this cannot be the rule of everyday life, instead of being an exceptional moment, during a choir.”
It is true, as C. S. Lewis said, that we read in order to know that we are not alone.
dual personalities 