The Well That Never Runs Dry...surprise!
In the previous post I referenced the book by the title above, a book by Joann Davis...well, I really did not "get into the book", meaning that I read it thru, but I never really developed a "high" for it. It was difficult to go through and I had to pull on discipline to persist without 'filing it', and finish its reading.
At the time nearing the end of the reading, a good friend asked me to do the "toast" at her wedding celebration, and after multiple days pondering what to 'say', the thought that came was that of the words in I Corinthians 13: 1-13 : Love is kind...love is..., etc. What else, but...
And that came up was ratified as I got to the end of the book, and btw - "Thanks!" - to the book. It was the surprising finale of "The Well That Never Runs Dry"!
The Bible passage is referenced in the book as "the Credo": "...one of the most inspiring, beloved, and profound passages of all time. Included in wedding ceremonies (hint, hint!), eulogies, and poetry collections, it describes the means to transform our world."...Uuuufff!
So...ok...and...?
After thinking it thru...
I picked up both a Spanish and English version of the 13 verses, just in case I was asked to do the toast in Spanish...and after searching for a dual version web page, I was ready!
But!, problem!
If you have ever read the verses, maybe you'll agree with me that ~ they are complex, they are not easy to understand; one tends to skip phrases, words that are just "OK, of course!" but their meaning are just not given a second thought. They are not so easy...transparent...
1 Corinthians 13 goes like this...:
The first 3 lines are not for the weak of heart: they are very demanding, yet as they are the introduction, and the beginning of the 'setting', the set up for what follows, the read is quick, and 'skippyish' over them. So, let's slow down and munch.
(1) Imagine my having done whatever would be necessary to learn all languages, even those I do not know now of their existence...that would be quite something, no? I would be all over the media channels: on CNN, ABC, Frontline, etc. A marvel!
And how about, somewhat short of that, or rather, much short of that, for me to be able to speak and to have a proper intonation in English! "inflection, pitch, tone, timbre,cadence, lilt, rise and fall, modulation,speech pattern; accentuation, accent,emphasis, stress."...which for me, and those who know me, that would seem to be an impossibility. Were it to happen, that would be a freak of nature! Well, this says that even with that skill "in my pocket", were I not to have love (whatever that means...), I would be just a noisy cymbal - a brass plate, a crackling, echoing, clanging voice. My words, even those uttered softly, paused-ly, intelligently, without threatening, pointing, advising, criticizing, etc., would be "offensive" as a "whack on the ear", with repercussions all over the CNS - the central nervous system.
(2) And, what If I were able to tell the future, to anticipate what is going to happen - whether to you, to others, to nations, to situations...and - to and for - myself (insecurity - hint!). And were I to "know" all there is "to know" about anything and everything - for I "know it all" (imagine my ego ballooning to the edges of the Universe!). And wait!, there is more, for what if I were able to do incredible and powerful things - for as it is, I can even "move mountains", but...remove them too? I would be modern day Superman!, Spider Man, the Ninja Turtles, Hulk, all in one, with all those powers - and If they were to include all, that would include the powers of Wonder Woman - gulp! - too? - I guess so - no discrimination here...ehem. Anyway, with all of that, speaking all languages, knowing everything, according to this statement, I-would-be-NOTHING...! Nothing! No - thing!
(3) Then to top it off, our need as humans to possess, to have things, to own things, and furthermore, our need to ...H A V E... more than you and others...not for need, but for importance, for 'echelon-itis' - for my being more than you stuff, comes in. This central ego dimension is not left behind by the statement.
So that in these three (3 only) lines this thing rattles oneself and one's defenses, and multiple 'raison d'être-s': "I speak all there is to speak (including computer languages too, I imagine?); I can tell the future, the past, what's going on; I know all there is to know (how about me, Galileo, Einstein, CERN scientists, Stephen Hawking, Darwin, Beethoven, Wagner, Lizst, Freud, Jung, etc., etc.); and watch me, St. Francis, Jesus, Mother Theresa: I will give all my possessions, even my body (and all it means and contains and is the substrate of) to be disposed of, to be burned away (so that I can boast of even that!), and be still on top of all of these, ehem, "competencies". What greatness, what magnificence!
Yet this says that, If I..."do not have love, I gain nothing"...
How can that be?
At the time nearing the end of the reading, a good friend asked me to do the "toast" at her wedding celebration, and after multiple days pondering what to 'say', the thought that came was that of the words in I Corinthians 13: 1-13 : Love is kind...love is..., etc. What else, but...
And that came up was ratified as I got to the end of the book, and btw - "Thanks!" - to the book. It was the surprising finale of "The Well That Never Runs Dry"!
The Bible passage is referenced in the book as "the Credo": "...one of the most inspiring, beloved, and profound passages of all time. Included in wedding ceremonies (hint, hint!), eulogies, and poetry collections, it describes the means to transform our world."...Uuuufff!
So...ok...and...?
After thinking it thru...
I picked up both a Spanish and English version of the 13 verses, just in case I was asked to do the toast in Spanish...and after searching for a dual version web page, I was ready!
But!, problem!
If you have ever read the verses, maybe you'll agree with me that ~ they are complex, they are not easy to understand; one tends to skip phrases, words that are just "OK, of course!" but their meaning are just not given a second thought. They are not so easy...transparent...
1 Corinthians 13 goes like this...:
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast,[a] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part;10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly,[b] but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
The first 3 lines are not for the weak of heart: they are very demanding, yet as they are the introduction, and the beginning of the 'setting', the set up for what follows, the read is quick, and 'skippyish' over them. So, let's slow down and munch.
(1) Imagine my having done whatever would be necessary to learn all languages, even those I do not know now of their existence...that would be quite something, no? I would be all over the media channels: on CNN, ABC, Frontline, etc. A marvel!
And how about, somewhat short of that, or rather, much short of that, for me to be able to speak and to have a proper intonation in English! "inflection, pitch, tone, timbre,cadence, lilt, rise and fall, modulation,speech pattern; accentuation, accent,emphasis, stress."...which for me, and those who know me, that would seem to be an impossibility. Were it to happen, that would be a freak of nature! Well, this says that even with that skill "in my pocket", were I not to have love (whatever that means...), I would be just a noisy cymbal - a brass plate, a crackling, echoing, clanging voice. My words, even those uttered softly, paused-ly, intelligently, without threatening, pointing, advising, criticizing, etc., would be "offensive" as a "whack on the ear", with repercussions all over the CNS - the central nervous system.
(2) And, what If I were able to tell the future, to anticipate what is going to happen - whether to you, to others, to nations, to situations...and - to and for - myself (insecurity - hint!). And were I to "know" all there is "to know" about anything and everything - for I "know it all" (imagine my ego ballooning to the edges of the Universe!). And wait!, there is more, for what if I were able to do incredible and powerful things - for as it is, I can even "move mountains", but...remove them too? I would be modern day Superman!, Spider Man, the Ninja Turtles, Hulk, all in one, with all those powers - and If they were to include all, that would include the powers of Wonder Woman - gulp! - too? - I guess so - no discrimination here...ehem. Anyway, with all of that, speaking all languages, knowing everything, according to this statement, I-would-be-NOTHING...! Nothing! No - thing!
(3) Then to top it off, our need as humans to possess, to have things, to own things, and furthermore, our need to ...H A V E... more than you and others...not for need, but for importance, for 'echelon-itis' - for my being more than you stuff, comes in. This central ego dimension is not left behind by the statement.
So that in these three (3 only) lines this thing rattles oneself and one's defenses, and multiple 'raison d'être-s': "I speak all there is to speak (including computer languages too, I imagine?); I can tell the future, the past, what's going on; I know all there is to know (how about me, Galileo, Einstein, CERN scientists, Stephen Hawking, Darwin, Beethoven, Wagner, Lizst, Freud, Jung, etc., etc.); and watch me, St. Francis, Jesus, Mother Theresa: I will give all my possessions, even my body (and all it means and contains and is the substrate of) to be disposed of, to be burned away (so that I can boast of even that!), and be still on top of all of these, ehem, "competencies". What greatness, what magnificence!
Yet this says that, If I..."do not have love, I gain nothing"...
How can that be?
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