In My View, Jan Masaryk Was Thoroughly

When St. Teresa Of Avila Says, 'our Life In This World Is Like A Night In A Second Class Hotel' I Agree With Her Absolutely; And I Think It's Almost Insulting To God And Man To Suggest That Trivial Events Should Give Rise To Deep Concern On His Part.

The Genius Of Man In Our Time Has Gone Into Jet-propulsion, Atom-splitting, Penicillin-curing, Etc. There Is None Left Over For Works Of Imagination; Of Spiritual Insight Or Mystical Enlightenment.

In My View, Jan Masaryk Was Thoroughly Corrupt, Who Bumped Himself Off Because He Saw At Last Where His Moral Cowardice And Ideological 'playboyery' Had Led Him. I Vividly Remember Visiting Him In Washington, Fat, Slightly Tight, Coming Into The Room Looking Like A Broken-down Butler With His Master, The Little Communist, Clementis, - And Saying In A Loud Voice: 'has Anyone Seen An Iron Curtain? I Haven't.' Well, He Has Now.

When I Look Back On My Life Nowadays, Which I Sometimes Do, What Strikes Me Most Forcibly About It Is That What Seemed At The Time Most Significant And Seductive, Seems Now Most Futile And Absurd. For Instance, Success In All Of Its Various Guises; Being Known And Being Praised; Ostensible Pleasures, Like Acquiring Money Or Seducing Women, Or Traveling, Going To And Fro In The World And Up And Down In It Like Satan, Exploring And Experiencing Whatever Vanity Fair Has To Offer. In Retrospect All These Exercises In Self-gratification Seem Pure Fantasy, What Pascal Called “licking The Earth.

In The End, Coming To Faith Remains For All A Sense Of Homecoming, Of Picking Up The Threads Of A Lost Life, Of Responding To A Bell That Had Long Been Ringing, Of Taking A Place At A Table That Had Long Been Vacant.