And I Believe That I Will Never

Sometimes I Long For A Convent Cell, With The Sublime Wisdom Of Centuries Set Out On Bookshelves All Along The Wall And A View Across The Cornfields--there Must Be Cornfields And They Must Wave In The Breeze--and There I Would Immerse Myself In The Wisdom Of The Ages And In Myself. Then I Might Perhaps Find Peace And Clarity. But That Would Be No Great Feat. It Is Right Here, In This Very Place, In The Here And The Now, That I Must Find Them.

And I Believe That I Will Never Be Able To Hate Any Human Being For His So-called 'wickedness,' That I Shall Only Hate The Evil That Is Within Me, Though Hate Is Perhaps Putting It Too Strongly Even Then. In Any Case, We Cannot Be Lax Enough In What We Demand Of Others And Strict Enough In What We Demand Of Ourselves.

There Are Moments When I Feel Like Giving Up Or Giving In, But I Soon Rally Again And Do My Duty As I See It: To Keep The Spark Of Life Inside Me Ablaze.

Every Day I Shall Put My Papers In Order And Every Day I Shall Say Farewell. And The Real Farewell, When It Comes, Will Only Be A Small Outward Confirmation Of What Has Been Accomplished Within Me From Day To Day.

How Rash To Assert That Man Shapes His Own Destiny. All He Can Do Is Determine His Inner Responses.