Sunday, January 23, 2005
Freezing Reflection
As Inagurataion week wraps up, I thought I'd try to offer a little insight of my own. Unfortunately, the heat in my apartment is broken, and the insiduous cold of the Canadian winter is invading my brain. Thus, I turn to the immortal words of Thomas Wolfe (not the foppish one writing today--the actual genius who died in 1938):
I think the enemy comes to us and says to us:
"I am your friend."
I think the enemy deceives us with false words and lying phrases, saying:
"See, I am one of you--I am one of your children, your son, your brother, and your friend. Behold how sleek and fat I have become--and all because I am just one of you, and your friend. Behold how rich and powerful I am--and all become I am one of you--shaped in your way of life, of thinking, of accomplishment. What I am, I am because I am one of you, your humble brother and your friend. Behold," cries Enemy, "the man I am, the man I have become, the thing I have accomplished, and reflect. Will you destroy this thing? I assure you it is the most precious thing you have. It is yourselves, the projection of each of you, the triumph of your individual lives, the thing that is rooted in your blood, and native to your stock, and inherent to the traditions of America. It is the thing all of you may hope to be," says Enemy, "for--" humbly--"am I not just one of you? Am I not just your brother and your son? Am I not just the living image of what each of you may hope to be, would wish to be, would desire for his own son? Would you destroy this glorious incarnation of your own heroic self? If you do, then," says Enemy, "You destroy yourselves-- you kill the thing that is most gloriously American, and in so killing, kill yourselves."
He lies! And how we kniow he lies! He is not gloriously, or in any other way, ourselves. He is not our friend, our son, our brother. And he is not American! For although he has a thousand familiar and convenient faces, his own true face is as old as Hell.
Look about you and see what he has done.
-From "You Can't Go Home Again", by Thomas Wolfe. ¶ 1:01 p.m.
I think the enemy comes to us and says to us:
"I am your friend."
I think the enemy deceives us with false words and lying phrases, saying:
"See, I am one of you--I am one of your children, your son, your brother, and your friend. Behold how sleek and fat I have become--and all because I am just one of you, and your friend. Behold how rich and powerful I am--and all become I am one of you--shaped in your way of life, of thinking, of accomplishment. What I am, I am because I am one of you, your humble brother and your friend. Behold," cries Enemy, "the man I am, the man I have become, the thing I have accomplished, and reflect. Will you destroy this thing? I assure you it is the most precious thing you have. It is yourselves, the projection of each of you, the triumph of your individual lives, the thing that is rooted in your blood, and native to your stock, and inherent to the traditions of America. It is the thing all of you may hope to be," says Enemy, "for--" humbly--"am I not just one of you? Am I not just your brother and your son? Am I not just the living image of what each of you may hope to be, would wish to be, would desire for his own son? Would you destroy this glorious incarnation of your own heroic self? If you do, then," says Enemy, "You destroy yourselves-- you kill the thing that is most gloriously American, and in so killing, kill yourselves."
He lies! And how we kniow he lies! He is not gloriously, or in any other way, ourselves. He is not our friend, our son, our brother. And he is not American! For although he has a thousand familiar and convenient faces, his own true face is as old as Hell.
Look about you and see what he has done.
-From "You Can't Go Home Again", by Thomas Wolfe. ¶ 1:01 p.m.
