Sometimes you read something that just blows you away. I had that experience last night.
I’m reading Below the Salt, a novel by historian Thomas B. Costain, published in 1957; it was a Christmas gift this year. My mother had it on her bookshelf for ages, but I never got around to reading it.
The plot concerns an elderly U.S. Senator, very wealthy, who resigns from politics and embarks on a special project he wishes to complete before he dies. He feels compelled to tell a story… from medieval history. But first he needs to collect more information.
Here’s the passage that wowed me. The senator is speaking:
“I have a reason for telling the story now. You know what people are saying in all parts of the world, that the present system of government deserves to die. Because some people have easier lives than others, and a larger share of worldly goods, they want everything changed. To achieve complete equality–or what they hope will prove equality–they are willing to forgo the personal freedom we have won so slowly and painfully over the ages, the right to think and say and do what we please. They are willing to bring back the tyranny of absolute government. Ah, if they only knew! If they could look back into the past and see for themselves what mankind has emerged from!”
“Mandates,” anyone? They’ll make ya safe! Honest, we’ll give you back your freedom as soon as there are no more diseases in the world…” And so forth. They’re always offering to protect us. And they always wind up eating us.
Thomas B. Costain saw patterns in history. He would see those same patterns today.
The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has broken those patterns; but without faith, who can help repeating them? Over and over again…
It’s the same old song and dance. Trickle up poverty. I wish the same for every person; opportunity. What any individual chooses to do with the opportunities that come their way is up to them.
Sometimes it takes many failures, before someone succeeds. I’ve had my share of failures, along the way, but that also prepared me to do better in the future. I am far from rich, but I do alright. What success I’ve experienced didn’t happen automatically; it was built one day at a time, by sticking with it, even when it wasn’t easy. Sometimes unfair situations arose, but my goal was to succeed, so I bit my tongue, and fought the odds. Anyone that has had honest success in life will have experienced the same sorts of things.
As for me, if you can’t take truckloads of failure… you can’t be a writer.
Success usually come from experience, which usually involves failure.
Keep at it till you win! It’s the only way.
Sadly, a lot of people have been raised to interpret any setback as being the result of some injustice.
It always comes back to the Santayana saying about learning from the past or you will repeat it. This is why the Bible says it is the parents job to educate their children.