A Spice of Life Never Strained

"The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown...
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice."

William Shakespeare
The Merchant of Venice
Act IV, Scene I

Compassion, pity, tolerance, and forgiveness...there are many ways to define the word “mercy,” but the difficulty that people often have with each of these concepts that mercy encompasses is a singular struggle. In The Merchant of Venice, the character Portia pleads on behalf of Antonio whose life hangs in the balance because of Shylock’s contract which gives him the right to cut out a pound of Antonio’s flesh. Shylock is fueled by vengeance, and although his contract gives him the right of law, Shylock’s hunger to fulfill the contract causes him to lose something much more valuable than legal redress; he loses his own humanity.

What could distort someone into a monster who craves another’s flesh above all else even when the punishment is grossly disproportionate to the crime? The answer to this question was ageless even in Shakespeare’s time, and it is a vice that we all still struggle with today. The answer is unrelenting vengeance and lack of empathy that blinds us to the power of forgiveness. How many times have we all held grudges against people for wrongs both real and imagined that people have committed against us? The degrading influence of vengeance corrupts on all levels from the trivial insult to the crimes heard in courts of law. From the cruel monarch who mindlessly slaughters his own people who resist him to the office gossip who ruins reputations and makes enemies of friends, vindictiveness and vengeance affect us all even to the point that we strike out without real evidence of any wrong. How many times have we all sought to hurt others through gossip and rumor when evidence of the other’s offense is based on only rumor as well?

I do not mean to say that justice should not be carried out in the presence of a crime. On the contrary, people must be held accountable for their actions, and this is especially true in a court of law. However, as Portia states, justice must be seasoned with mercy. The law is an impartial, unfeeling instrument that must be wielded by people who strive to exercise mercy and forgiveness when at all possible. Law is only words and numbers, but people must be more. We cannot weigh a person’s worth in pounds; a person must be judged as a human being and not as a pound of flesh. This is why mercy is so important. The quality of mercy is that it is one of humanity’s brightest flames and exercising our humanity can never be strained. Mercy can manifest itself in many different forms including pity, forgiveness, and simple consideration. Because all of these forms represent a type of mercy, this means that exercising it does not entail that a crime goes unpunished. Forgiveness is a mercy that we give not only to the accused, but also to ourselves. “It blesseth him that gives and him that takes” because it replaces bitter hate with the peace that is felt when we can truly say that we have punished in the name of justice and not simply in the service of our own hate.

We must all strive to season our own personal sense of justice with the quality of mercy. Mercy does not close our eyes, but instead it opens them so that we can truly judge offenses clearly. How many trivial or unfounded lawsuits could be dropped and how many families could resolve feuds whose true cause has long since been forgotten?

Many might ask when the line is crossed between mercy and the indulgence of a wrong. The answer is echoed in countless cultures and religions and is illustrated in the phrase, “Do unto others as you would have done to you.” The continuance of this phrase even to the point of being cliché is a testament to the power of mercy as an essential virtue for humanity. Some offenses must certainly be punished, maybe even to the point of death in some extreme instances, but we must all stop and ask ourselves if the punishment fits the crime. In our every day lives, we should all strive to question ourselves, “Have we committed the same crime that we refuse to forgive?” If the answer is yes, then we must strive to see the human being who stands behind the offense. How can we ask for mercy for our own inevitable failings when we have none to give in return? Maybe the spice of life is the virtue of mercy that allows us to revive what has been spoiled and bring new life to those that give and receive its quality.

Can you think of instances in worldly affairs or your own personal life where mercy might have prevented unneeded pain and suffering?

How do you define mercy in your own personal life?

Is real justice more dependent upon each individual’s humanity and virtue than it is on written law?

As a Christian, I believe people come closest to the divine presence when they exercise the mercy that Jesus showed when he forgave humanity its faults. What are instances of mercy in other religions, belief systems, or in other Christian examples as well that point to mercy being a divine quality?

How many religious texts and pieces of literature from countless cultures exalt mercy as a principal virtue?

Have a wonderful week!

--Carrie Goertz

The Unnecessary Necessity that Plagues Us All

"But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon plowed into the soil for compost. By a seeming fate, commonly called necessity, they
are employed. . . .
Actually, the laboring man has not leisure for a true integrity day by day; he cannot afford to sustain the manliest relations to men; his labor would be depreciated in the market. He has no time to be anything but a machine."

Henry David Thoreau
From the chapter "Economy" in Walden

Although conducted in the nineteenth century, Henry David Thoreau’s experiment in living and the conclusions that he drew from it may be even more relevant for today’s society that seeks comfort and validation from material possessions on an ever increasing scale. Thoreau’s experiment sought to answer the questions that many of us still find ourselves asking today; what is necessity, and when do the objects that we seek to possess come to possess us instead?
The above quote is the result of conclusions that Thoreau drew from living a life of simplicity while alone at Walden Pond. When Thoreau says that “men labor under a mistake,” he does not mean that hard work is not admirable; what he means is that people should stop to consider what it is that they are truly working to obtain. In reality, people do not work for the material things themselves; they work for the happiness and the contentment that they think these new products or conveniences will bring them. Ironically, it is often the never ending race to always buy more that denies people the happiness that they are seeking from these luxuries in the first place. The things that can truly bring us contentment, validation, and pure happiness like fellowship with friends and family are passed by the wayside when we become blinded by the latest and greatest that money can buy. How many times have we all felt stress and pressure to work harder for the luxuries that we convince ourselves we need at the expense of spending that extra hour at home with the ones we love? We become like the ploughman in Thoreau’s quote when our excessive labor ceases to benefit us and instead buries us under unnecessary pressure and stress.

I am not so extreme and do not even claim that I myself do not strive for conveniences and material comforts, and I would be a hypocrite if I told others that all unnecessary possessions are corrupting and should be denied. However, I do believe that life today is fraught with unnecessary stress and burden because we convince ourselves that we need so much more than we really do. Just as in so many other areas of life, people must seek to strike a balance between comfortable living and excess. This balance is not so hard to achieve when we consider the one commonality that often binds the material possessions that we all seek. When we think back on those things that we have bought that have truly brought us happiness, we often find that it was not the material thing itself that gave us joy, but instead experiencing the new purchase with others that really made the purchase worthwhile. We must learn not to become the “laboring man” who reduces himself to a machine in order to simply buy more machines. Life cannot be so mechanical that we forsake true happiness that can only be found through meaningful relationships and not things. Let us buy what we can comfortably afford and let those luxuries enhance our experiences with loved ones, and as for the time gained by not striving for the excess, spend that hour to notice that there is beauty and wealth just as rich in the simplicity of the dawning of each day as there is in anything that money and unnecessary burden can buy.

When does comfortable living become excess in your opinion?

Do you think that materialism relates to many people's poor self image and insecurities regarding their own identities?

When reflecting on your own life, do you find that personal reflection and simplicity spent with loved ones is as fulfilling or more that individual extravagance?

I'd love to hear from everyone. Have a wonderful week!

--Carrie Goertz

Lifting Up through Letting Go

"Anyway, I keep picturing all these
little kids playing some game in this big
field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and
nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them.
That's all I do all day.”

Holden Caulfield
The Catcher in the Rye.

Holden Caulfield’s words in The Catcher in the Rye reflect the fear of losing the innocence of childhood. Throughout the book, he condemns all adults for being phony and immoral which makes him fear his own coming of age. This fear leads him to make the above statement that he wishes that he could freeze children in a perpetual state of youth so that they can remain happy and innocent forever.

Although Holden Caulfield is in many ways still a child himself, many adults express the same wish to freeze children in a perpetual state of youth so that they can protect their children from the realities that will later come with their emergence into adulthood. We see this occurring everywhere as parents take advantage of new technology that allows them to monitor their children through video cameras, GPS tracking devices, and constant mandatory check ups by cell phone. However innocent this wish to shelter their children may seem, the line between catching children when they fall and holding them back from discovering their own growing identities is a thin line indeed. If parents and adults in general fail to allow children some freedom to learn from their own mistakes or to express themselves in new ways as they begin the transition to adulthood, then many young people either become solely dependent on their parents’ guidance or they rebel against what they feel is the refusal to acknowledge the fact that they are no longer children anymore.

The “crazy cliff” that Holden Caulfield wishes to save children from by catching them is the leap from childhood to adulthood. This leap may be intimidating for many young people and parents alike, but it is a necessary leap that helps shape young people into adults capable of dealing with life by making their own mature decisions. I am not saying that parents should trust children to always make the right decisions or that being strict is detrimental to a child’s development, but I believe that there must be times when children are forced to pull themselves up rather than rely on an adult’s helping hand. The helping hands present in childhood will not always be there, and when young people enter adulthood, they often find that the hands that they encounter in the adult world are just as likely to push them down as they are to help them up. Although all good parents support their children by leading them to the cliff with reassurance and proper guidance, the final leap can be made by the adolescent alone, and this final leap becomes impossible when young people are held back through constant supervision meant to protect young people from themselves. Only through their own confidence can adolsecents develop the skills and strength necessary to make the leap to adulthood. A failure to have confidence in their own hands and abilities is often the dangerous result of being pulled down by a well meaning hand that refuses to let go.

When do you think the line is crossed between support and sheltering?

Have some parents gone too far in the supervision and constant monitoring available through technology such as cell phones, hidden cameras, and GPS monitoring systems?

What are your own experiences as a parent or a child that have shaped your views about this issue?

I would really like to hear from everyone since this is such a pressing and hotly debated issue. Feel free to let me know if you agree or disagree with anything about the quote or my post.
Thank you for reading and please come back for future posts!

--Carrie

I'm Baaaack!

Hello Everyone!

First of all, I would like to say thank you for everyone who has taken the time to read my posts and indulge my desire to voice my opinion regarding literature and its relevance to today's life. Thank you also to all those who have commented, and I encourage everyone to offer their opinion or offer their own quotes and commentary since literature has many different interpretations and hearing each individual's view only enriches our own.

A Speaking Picture is back! After an unavoidable hiatus, I plan to post regularly again and welcome your comments, suggestions, and opinions!

Thank you for visiting!

--Carrie

Rising Above

"I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it is the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend, and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope."

Stephen King
“Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption.”

This statement is made by the character Red after he is finally released from prison. Because Red has spent most of his adult life in prison, the outside world is unfamiliar and frightening to him, so he seeks the companionship of his friend Andy.

Although Red is uncertain about his new life, his response to that fear and uncertainty provides an example that all people can learn from and apply to their own lives. He counters the uncertainty of life’s journey by having hope and seeking the companionship of his friend. These two things make him able to cope with a world that has moved on while he was behind prison walls.

Red does not dwell on the disorientation that he feels, but rather he speaks of his dreams, of the blue Pacific Ocean, and of shaking hands with his friend. Too often, we respond to disorienting situations by obsessing over our fears and possible pessimistic outcomes. Although it is always good to have realistic expectations, when fears of the unknown dominate our actions, we neither enjoy or function in life as well as we could if we approached such situations with hope.

Freedom can come in many different forms and need not be as extreme as lifelong imprisonment. Freedom provides people with liberation, of course, but it also demands that we take responsibility for our actions. Red has finally achieved freedom because he has done just that by taking his life into his own hands in an attempt to live a better life than he did before his time at Shawshank Prison.

Finally, although Red is free, he still seeks the comfort and the companionship of his friend. His hope is strengthened by the prospect of meeting his friend which he has long envisioned in his dreams. Friends and other intimates are often our main source of hope because of their loyalty, compassion, and counsel.

Although Red’s journey is uncertain, his hope, optimism, and reliance on mutual friendship indicates that he will find the Pacific as blue as he saw it in his dreams. It is in the fulfillment of our responsibilities, friendships, and optimistic attitudes that we find the strength to continue to hope and dream.

What ways do you remain hopeful in situations of difficulty and uncertainty?

Do you agree with Red’s philosophy that hope is always a good thing?

--Carrie

The Molding of a Man

“He felt his pocket; the gun was still there. Ahead the long rails were glinting in the moonlight, stretching away, away to somewhere, somewhere where he could be a man…”

Richard Wright
"The Man Who Was Almost a Man"

As an African American living during the early twentieth century, Richard Wright was well aware of the consequences of prejudice and discrimination. The quote is the last line of his short story which relates the tragic story of a young African American boy who mistakenly believes that he will gain respect and acceptance through the power of a gun.

When people are denied basic respect, rights, and acknowledgement, they seek it in whatever ways that they find available to them. This is not only the case with people of different ethnicities, but also of those who find themselves denied these rights because of their economic or social position within the community. The urge for acceptance and basic rights becomes so great that many have turned to violence in an effort to force acknowledgement. Sadly, the result is not respect, but simply pain for both the target of the violence and the aggressor.

Debate about accountability and the degree to which we should acknowledge special circumstances like prejudice can be seen throughout history and is quite evident in today’s courtrooms. Arguments about accountability aside, the quote and the title of the short story point out an important message; violence should never be part of the criteria for making someone a man or respected person. Whether or not you believe that some wars are justified or that people have a right to carry guns is your own opinion, but when people define themselves through a tool of violence, they loose respect for the lives of others.

The young boy in Wright’s story is trapped in an impossible predicament. He cannot truly be a man simply through the ownership of a gun, but neither can he be a man in the eyes of white society because they refuse to see him as an equal. In the present time, we can learn from Wright’s story by remembering that a lack of respect for another’s life, whether it is through violence or prejudice, causes pain on both sides.

What are some current examples of people’s use of violence in an attempt to be acknowledged?

Although the message of tolerant respect is a simple one, why is it a lesson that people still struggle with today?

Despite the fact that violence does not make someone a “man,” when, if ever, is violence an acceptable means to achieve an end?

--Carrie

Looking Beyond the Mirror

“Oh roses for the flush of youth,
And laurel for the perfect prime;
But pluck an ivy branch for me
Grown old before my time.”

Christina Rossetti
“Song”

The saying, “old before one’s time,” has become a cliché that many people take for granted today. However, we see the relevance of its message everyday. What does “growing old before one’s time” really mean? I believe it can mean many things, but in all cases, it is the failure to live one’s life with purpose, goals, and happiness. I have seen many people who lack a sense of confidence in themselves. They may feel insecure about their appearance, their intelligence, or their ability to relate to others. Sadly, all of these insecurities often lead people to lock themselves away from the world that they fear in an attempt to shelter themselves from the sorrow that they think has been caused by a loss of youth and youthful accomplishments. How many times have we heard, “If I was young again…” or “When I was in my prime…”

We grow old when we sorrow for things that we can never change. The “what if,” the “maybe,” and the “should have” keep us from moving forward in life. Many people have the mistaken idea that if they stand still, no harm will come to them, but in standing still, people grow old without experiencing a life really lived. People may see youth as beauty or as past accomplishments during adolescence, but growing old in this sense has nothing to do with chronological age and everything to do with state of mind and pursuing goodness and happiness for ourselves and others no matter what the age.

I have seen individuals in their seventies who were beautiful people in their prime, and I have also seen people in their twenties shriveled in bitterness and lack of purpose. There is nothing wrong with feeling pride in the accomplishments gained in youth, but as we grow older that does not mean that the accomplishments should end there. American society is dominated by the idea that youthful appearance is essential for happiness. People spend millions of dollars each year to keep their appearance looking “young.” However, this obsession with a youthful appearance often makes individuals neglect youth in mind and spirit. They may hate their job, their relationships, or feel insecure about their abilities, yet it is the physical youth that they continue to seek and try to regain. They do not realize that the most fulfilling form of youth is found in stable relationships, goals, and purposes that can only be found by stepping out of one’s comfort zone. It may be easier to spend money on the face lift rather than work on deeply rooted insecurities, but true youth is found in a security gained by breaking out of one’s shell and by looking beyond the mirror for a definition of satisfied youth.

What do you think defines youth and how is it retained?

--Carrie Goertz

Power's Evil Paradox

"Instead of a Dark Lord, you would have a queen, not dark but beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Tempestuous as the sea, and stronger than the foundations of the earth! All shall love me and despair!"

Galadriel
Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

The theme of power’s corrupting influence haunts the pages of literature in all eras and cultures. Tolkien’s the Lord of the Rings exposes the corrupting affects of power through the symbol of a magical ring. In the quote above, the great queen, Galadriel, is offered the ring of power, and despite her overwhelming goodness, the temptation of ultimate power makes her forget herself and her virtuous qualities for a time.

The quote at first appears to be contradictory. She wishes people to love her and despair, to be beautiful and terrible, yet when we look at modern dictators and totalitarian governments we find the same opposing desires. Many people become corrupted by power because they lack a sense of security with their own identity. Therefore, dictators seek to deny others their own sense of self in an attempt to feel powerful and secure with their own identities. Although people often seek power as a form of security, they also crave the love of those who they wish to dominate. This explains the wish for all to “love me and despair.” This statement illustrates why absolute power can never really bring a sense of security or happiness. The constant need for people to fear them in order to keep control denies power hungry individuals the love that all human beings crave. The people that they dominate will never truly love them because they seek freedom. Freedom and love compliment one another; however, love and slavery will remain opposites that bring misery to not only those dominated, but also to the dictator as well.

After being confronted with the ring of power, the immortal Galadriel understands this fact. She understands that domination denies one the ability to truly love. With all the wisdom that immortality has brought her, she is still tempted by power…let us learn from this example rather than hope to live so long.

What are your thoughts about the quote and the motivations and influences that power holds over people?

What are some other books that explore the theme of power, and how have they affected your view of its influence?

--Carrie Goertz