We are, as we have always been, dangerous creatures, the enemies of our
own happiness. But the only help we have ever found for this, the only
melioration, is in mutual reverence. God’s grace comes to us unmerited,
the theologians say. But the grace we could extend to one another we
consider it best to withhold in very many cases, presumptively, or in
the absence of what we consider true or sufficient merit (we being more
particular than God), or because few gracious acts, if they really
deserve the name, would stand up to a cost-benefit analysis. This is not
the consequence of a new atheism, or a systemic materialism that
afflicts our age more than others. It is good old human meanness, which
finds its terms and pretexts in every age. The best argument against
human grandeur is the meagerness of our response to it, paradoxically
enough.
Marilynne Robinson, New York Review (November , 2017)
A commonplace book: an old-fashioned literary diary for recording interesting items from reading you've done. I use mine to record snippets from reading, conversation and life in general. (The early 2003 entries are from a period some years ago -- before the blog age -- when I tried an online commonplace book as a straight web page.)
Sunday, October 22, 2017
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