So many thoughts this morning. But in reading The Self in Hiding by Marianne Watts, OP, I can't help commenting on her insights.
Watts speaks of our desire to live a pleasant life, one sheltered from pain and suffering and hardships. I think she has got it right. Who doesn't want life to go smoothly, with as little travail as possible? A sentence in her essay catches my eye: When the dark side of human nature is denied, it is often compassion that dies.
Quite a statement. Watts believes we should not isolate ourselves in our pretty "gardens of ease" as she calls it, because such a way of life support structure for shallow lives and a stockade which distances the suffering not so far beyond... To live without darkness means to isolate oneself. And to live in isolation is to miss the beauty of community, sharing and assisting. It's no wonder Watts speaks repeatedly of compassion.
Giving many reasons to stay aware of the frailty, cruelty, and suffering of humankind, Watts again makes a startling statement; If we are human, we bear the legacy of humanity's wilderness within us where the beasts of potential cruelty pace and where compassion must grow strong. This statement is the strongest in her essay. For it challenges those of us who would absent ourselves from the pain of others. It suggests that by living apart from those who suffer, we do not live, we just pretend to. For, according to Watts, by denying the pain and suffering we see around us, we fail to see, let alone admit, to our own inner darkness. And our lives are not full unless we acknowledge both sides of our nature.
I tend to agree.
Watts speaks of our desire to live a pleasant life, one sheltered from pain and suffering and hardships. I think she has got it right. Who doesn't want life to go smoothly, with as little travail as possible? A sentence in her essay catches my eye: When the dark side of human nature is denied, it is often compassion that dies.
Quite a statement. Watts believes we should not isolate ourselves in our pretty "gardens of ease" as she calls it, because such a way of life support structure for shallow lives and a stockade which distances the suffering not so far beyond... To live without darkness means to isolate oneself. And to live in isolation is to miss the beauty of community, sharing and assisting. It's no wonder Watts speaks repeatedly of compassion.
Giving many reasons to stay aware of the frailty, cruelty, and suffering of humankind, Watts again makes a startling statement; If we are human, we bear the legacy of humanity's wilderness within us where the beasts of potential cruelty pace and where compassion must grow strong. This statement is the strongest in her essay. For it challenges those of us who would absent ourselves from the pain of others. It suggests that by living apart from those who suffer, we do not live, we just pretend to. For, according to Watts, by denying the pain and suffering we see around us, we fail to see, let alone admit, to our own inner darkness. And our lives are not full unless we acknowledge both sides of our nature.
I tend to agree.
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