Gilead - Part III

OK, friends, let's kick off round three, shall we?

This section starts with p. 101 in my edition:

“I came home from lunch today and found you playing catch in the street with Jack Boughton.”

And ends on p. 154 in my edition:

“And often enough, when we think we are protecting ourselves, we are struggling against our rescuer. I know this, I have seen the truth of it with my own eyes, though I have not myself always managed to live by it, the Good Lord knows. I truly doubt I would know how to live by it for even a day, or an hour. That is a remarkable thing to consider.”

I'll chime in soon with quotes that touched me in some way. Anyone else wanna start?

Re: Gilead - Part III

Here's a good one, not too far into this section, found on my pages 103-104:

Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.

Good old Isaac Watts. I've thought about that verse often. I have always wondered what relationship this present reality bears to an ultimate reality.

A thousand ages in Thy site
Are like an evening gone…

No doubt that is true. Our dream of life will end as dreams do end, abruptly and completely, when the sun rises, when the light comes. And we will think, All that fear and all that grief were about nothing. But that cannot be true. I can't believe we will forget our sorrows altogether. That would mean forgetting that we had lived, humanly speaking. Sorrow seems to me to be a great part of the substance of human life.

This musing on what it means to be human resonates so deeply for me at this stage in my life. I love his owning of this as his perspective (recognizing that others might not share it) when he says, in that last sentence, “Sorrow seems to me…”

I also enjoyed his insight that a thousand ages from a human perspective is like one evening from an absolute perspective; of course, this is an assumption, too, from a human perspective. I love this line of inquiry, though. The idea that being human is really not that significant, yet it is completely significant.

Re: Gilead - Part III

Hi Colin I marked that section too.

Another telling sentence for me was:

A Sharps is a very fine rifle, but I suspect the first story is the true one, because in my experience that degree of precision is only achieved accidentally.

A bit like when I try too hard at meditation; the deeper experiences happen when i'm not trying or expecting anything.

I also liked:

Some of them seem to be a kind of wilderness unto themselves. But there must be angels there, too, and springs of water. Even that wilderness, the very habitation of jackals, is the Lord's. I need to bear this in mind.

And

When you love someone to the degree you love her, you see her as God sees her, and that is an instruction in the nature of God and humankind and of Being itself.

Juliee

Re: Gilead - Part III

Hi Juliee,

Ooh, those are great, too. It's been wonderful to walk along with this character, on a slow and rambling journey through life, and then find beautifully insightful pearls mixed in demonstrating his high level of development. When I read those pearls, sometimes I am struck by a developmental awareness. Other times, the insight is so ON that I simply bliss out in resonance and relax into Being.

YUM

Re: Gilead - Part III

Hi Colin, Juliee,

I’m still catching up - didn’t go anywhere last week so haven’t been able to listen to this part yet - did hear the first few pages and your quotes are what stood out for me too Colin!

Frans

Re: Gilead - Part III

Well, finally I got to read the book.

I was in Tunisia and spent a day parked on a sunbed and read the whole book. It cruised along so nicely it semed a shame to stop it. On the way I had noticed particular pasages i thought it would nice to refer back to at leisure as I joined this discussion, however to do that I would need another copy.

My book is on its own journey. When we were leaving, my husband had run out of book for the plane back. I had 4…Dawkins' The God Delusion and Goleman's Emotional Intelligence were immediately rejected. That left Gilead and Kazuo ishiguro's Never Let Me Go.It took about 10 seconds for him to rule that out, so off we went to the airport with Gilead in his bag. Of course I didn't tell him it was the Integral book club choice, that would have been the kiss of death.

So there I was, smugly expecting the book to go down well and some sort of dialogue that encompassed some understanding of what it was all about to finally open up. Bah! By 3 pages in, still in the airport waiting are, it was officially assesed as both “shite” and “unreadable”.

It doesn't end there though. Sitting opposite us was a woman on her own, who had been part of a couple at check in , just in front of us, on the way out from Glasgow. By this time she and I have started chatting, she has explained the ditched boyfriend (next to whom she still has to sit on the flight). She was quite amused by the dismissal of what i insisted was a “nice” and perfectly readable book. Anyway, she just happened to mention that she had read a book recently unlike anything she had before, a book by Paulo somebody(she couldn't remember his second name, this is your challenge for today, folks).  

Anyhow, what was different about this book was that it quite spiritual, not something this woman would normally see herself as reading. She then mentioned she didn't even have a book to distract her from her dumped man on the plane. So Gilead has gone where it will be appreciated, it seemed wrong to hang onto it. I hope she enjoys it.

Liz

Re: Gilead - Part III

Paulo Coelho? Perhaps.

The Alchemist
The Pilgimage… etc.
most recent novel I think The Zahir.

Sounds like the kind of response I'd get from my hubby (having grown up in Northern Ireland the terminology would be very similar too!!).

Juliee

Re: Gilead - Part III

Thanks Juliee,

That'll be the guy, she had an idea of what it was but had trouble with how to pronounce it. Seeing it written, I can see why.

Gold star to you, I've never read any of his books, but I might now.

Thanks
Liz

(Are you still in Ireland?)
Silly me, just read your profile-we are neighbours :-) I tend to assume everyone is across the pond.

Re: Gilead - Part III

Hi Liz

The Coelho books are ok but a bit predictable, unless I'm missing something. Like most things I suppose, it does depend on where you're coming from. They're a nice, easy, 'sort of spiritual' read. Maybe I've just been reading too much 'heavy stuff'.

No we're not in Northern Ireland any more - coming from opposite sides of the fence it wasn't really viable living over there when we first got married; in fact even now the cracks are only really papered over. They're still building 'peace walls' with new housing estates in Belfast. Sad.

Whereabouts in Scotland are you? My sister-in-law lives in Glasgow some of the time.

Juliee

Re: Gilead - Part III

That was a wonderful airport story, Liz! Good job with the “name that author” task, Juliee!

On a different note: I'm feeling more communion-oriented of late, and I have been quite swept up in the pod activity. As a result, I feel that I have neglected the agency that I stepped into when getting this book club going. Here we are, more than a week after I suggested the pages for Part III, and I've yet to suggest Part IV. Has anyone else picked up on this? Does it matter? How about if we call Part IV the rest of the book (roughly 100 pages) and start discussing it next weekend, so that we can move onto another book. Perhaps more will participate then? (So much for “be here now”! said in jest)

Thoughts?

Re: Gilead - Part III

Sounds good to me Colin.

Juliee

PS I might be 'incommunicado' for a while after next weekend as the new Harry Potter book is out!!!! Might have to be at the local supermarket at midnight to get my copy.