So, I should be sleeping. I've had about three hours of sleep in the past 48 hours. But I'm still psyched from going to the ISI Honors Colloquium.
Psyched may be the wrong word. My adrenaline is still pumping, but I'm actually sad. I enjoyed my time so much, and I am not particularly looking forward to cleaning my room and doing normal stuff again. I told myself that all good things must come to an end, and then I started thinking about the truth or untruth of that pessimistic phrase.
First, Heaven will not end. The statement is obviously not unqualifiedly true. But on earth does it hold? I guess so.
I just decided that I am too tired to continue this "conversation." Suffice it to say that I think good things end while good continues. (Think Sam Gamgee and the star.)
Goodnight.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Was not Sam's point, though, that bad things end while good continues? I suppose it is equally true of temporal good things. I felt very similar to this when I got back - I still haven't found the initiative to clean my room yet :)
Actually I do not think so. My interpretation of that part is that there is good that is beyond the reach of the bad, even when certain good things are destroyed.
He sees the star around the edge of a cloud, and "the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach." That would, support your interpretation, of course, but also supports mine if you understand "the Shadow" to be the darkening of good things--the sun is there, but things under a shadow have died from it. However, it is a line a little further down that is what I think pushes it more to Good remaining when good things are gone: "Now, for a moment, his own fate, and even his master's, ceased to trouble him." He and even Frodo might die, but there is still good.
I do not think these two interpretations are mutually exclusive. In fact, I think both sides of the question are clearly implied. They are two sides of the same coin.
Post a Comment