Category Archives: Great Quotes

August 22, 2007 · 5:16 am

What letter would you write to your former abuser?


Last night I was perusing a treasure I re-discovered on my bookshelf. Back in the dark ages my wife took a Black literature class at UConn and had the foresight to keep the books. This treasure, Dark Symphony: Negro Literature in America (Free Press, 1968) contains works from great writers such as Langston Hughes, W.E.B Dubois, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Ralph Ellison, and of course Frederick Douglass.

It is Douglass’ Letter to Thomas Auld (sometimes entitled, “To my old Master”) which first appeared September 22, 1848 in the Liberator. Thomas Auld was Douglass’ master before he escaped and gained his emancipation. Here’s a link to the whole letter but consider for a minute what you might write if you were writing to a past abuser. Continue reading →

4 Comments

Filed under Abuse, Great Quotes, Racial Reconciliation, Repentance, suffering

Tagged as

June 14, 2007 · 9:16 am

Multicultural vs. multiculturalism


I’m continuing to read Infidel, Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s story of her life and transition from Muslim girl to atheist woman. Very compelling. After becoming a citizen of Holland and entering the political scene, she began to battle injustices and lack of freedom within the Islamic communities in Europe. She describes the reaction from native Dutch who found her abject criticisms of Islam to be offensive. When she spoke out against the government support of Koranic based schools because they limited critical thinking and continued oppressive views of women, the liberal Dutch thought she was giving unnecessary fodder to the hard right or anti-immigrant politicians. Here’s what she said about switching political parties: Continue reading →

4 Comments

Filed under Abuse, book reviews, Cultural Anthropology, Great Quotes, News and politics

February 14, 2007 · 5:10 am

Ponder this thought on anger


Buechner has a delicious quote…

Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back — in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.

you can find this here: http://www.wisdomquotes.com/001444.html

Leave a comment

Filed under anger, Great Quotes

February 7, 2007 · 5:38 am

Talking back to your depression


I think Martyn Lloyd-Jones gets it right when he tells his readers (Spiritual Depression, pp 20-21) to take charge of their thinking by talking back to their feelings rather than passively listening to their own feelings. In many respects, this is what the author of Psalm 42/3 is doing. This is good medicine, if taken on one’s own. Probably not so good if forced down the throat of another… Continue reading →

7 Comments

Filed under Depression, Despair, Great Quotes

December 22, 2006 · 6:11 am

Euphemisms: Using language to hide evil


I want to share some lines from a statement purportedly made (dated 12/15/06) by the outgoing Ambassador John R. Miller, Director of the  Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. These lines are an excellent example of how the use of names/euphemisms cover up the reality of grotesque evil. [NOTE: I received a pdf document with Miller’s signature from a reputable source but I can’t validate it by finding it on the U.S. Department of State website. If someone locates this statement, let me know.]
It is my belief that we image God when we follow in Adam’s footsteps naming things as we see fit (Gen. 2:19-20). But unlike Adam (at the time of naming the animals), we are fallen creatures–prone to distorting names and calling things that are evil by flowery or neutral names. In fact, that is exactly what the Serpent does to Adam and Eve. He calls eating the forbidden fruit “seeking wisdom” when it is really a coup d’etat.

Enter Ambassador Miller’s statments. Here are some excerpts: Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under Abuse, Cognitive biases, Great Quotes, News and politics, self-deception, suffering

December 14, 2006 · 6:57 am

Ponder this: Fosdick on handling limitations


Rebellion against your handicaps gets you nowhere. Self-pity gets you nowhere. One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world – making the most of one’s best

Attributed to Harry Emerson Fosdick, 1878-1969

Leave a comment

Filed under Great Quotes, Meditations, Mindfulness

December 5, 2006 · 6:22 am

Counselors…repeat after me


“It is an easy thing for one whose foot is on the outside of calamity to give advice and to rebuke the sufferer”

Attributed to Aeschylus, Greek playwright 

Something Job’s counselors would have done well to know and the rest of us even more.

Leave a comment

Filed under counseling skills, Great Quotes

December 1, 2006 · 6:03 am

Grief brings ‘wisdom through the awful grace of God’


Came across a great quote from a Greek poet this week by watching part of the PBS series on Bobby Kennedy. While Bobby was running for president, MLK was brutally gunned down (4/4/68). RFK had been scheduled to make a speech to a large gathering of African Americans in Indianapolis. Since this time wasn’t an age of the 24 hour news cycle, RFK had to be the bearer of the terrible news to his audience. He spoke for just a few minutes from the heart and connected with his audience by talking about the experience of his own brother’s assassination. Here’s one piece of his speech (if you watch to the end you find the Aeschylus says in the sentence prior to the italics below: He who learns must suffer. So true!):

My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He once wrote: “Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”

What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.

Isn’t this so true? Against our will, the pain of grief brings wisdom and experience. And in the end, we see the grace of God even when we never feel good about the experience.

See this link if you want to read/hear the entire RFK speech: http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/rfk.htm

20 Comments

Filed under Great Quotes, Meditations, suffering