A Rose Named William Shakespeare

Stamps?

          While reading our current book, The Treasure Of Heaven, I came across two one-cent stamps fused onto the page.  At one point someone had clearly tried to remove them but only managed to tear part of the page away.  So my reading is done for tonight, I will borrow one of my fellow society members' copies tomorrow so I do not miss any of the details.  Definitely not something you find every day; the book itself is one hundred and seven years old, I wonder how old the stamps are?

     

From my Favorite Book Club Book so Far

"Better to struggle through life with a broken wing than to have no wings at all."

-- The Dean's Watch by Elizabeth Goudge

Wisdom from Anne Shirley

"Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is new day with no mistakes in it yet?"

-- Anne of Green Gables

A Bit of Book Humor. Happy Independence Day!

"O Brave New World . . ."

“O, wonder!

How many goodly creatures are there here!

How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,

That has such people in't!

                   -Miranda from Shakespeare’s The Tempest

          I shudder when I read Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Not because of how inhumane, mechanical, and extraordinary the future world of Huxley’s portrays, but how merely eighty-two years later Huxley’s fictional future does not seem so farfetched.  The other day I was perusing around facebook when I stumbled upon these . . .  

          I felt a chill creep up and down my spine.  The scene from Brave New World where John Savage tries to rally a group consisting of dozens of identical faces flashed through my mind.  Bred in bottles to perform mundane tasks these unquestioning people stand puzzled as John begs them to turn against the life they have always known.  John entreats them to turn away from the drugs, sex, a thoughtless and godless existence, but when he starts throwing their precious soma, their drug holidays, out the window a riot ensues.  Individualism creates chaos.  Thinking is dangerous.  Questioning is treacherous. 

          I stop and ask myself, how often do I parrot or pass on what someone else has said to save time?  Do I avoid the inconvenience of forming my own words and ideas?  Do I rely on authorities instead of God?  Would I give up freedom for security?  Do I follow the crowd?  I pray my answer is no.  But I must admit; being different, swimming upstream, taking the road less traveled, it can be very tiring.  Would I change my choices?  Looking back over decisions I have made I do wish I could go back and change some of them.  But each of those choices has shaped me into who I am; the good choices, and the bad ones.  Would I want some person who “knows better” to make all my decisions?  Would I give up faith for facts?  No!  I can learn from my mistakes, I can overcome struggles.  I can handle pain, loss, and disappointment.  Because giving up all that unpleasantness would mean giving up all their counterparts too; love, joy, happiness, faith, and hope.  I am imperfect, but I have free will.  I make mistakes, but I learn.  I am uncertain, but I have faith.  I am an individual.                    

Just Not Brave Enough

Currently reading Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and liking it about as much as I have on previous read-throughs (which is to say, NOT so much -- too scary . . . and sad). Sad that a blatant "warning" against so many attitudes-actions-ideas somehow became a handbook and guide, with great success I mourn. Pardon me if I refrain from applauding the proliferation of Facebook "bumper-sticker" posting mentality. I'm just not Brave enough for this New World, it seems. 

 

 

  feeling sad.