tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10131050.post8311029144715811046..comments2024-03-01T08:19:54.547+00:00Comments on BobFromBrockley: From Bob's archive: Alice Walker, loving the peoplebobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15439386754907203808noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10131050.post-26617313835574758432013-07-18T09:23:36.983+01:002013-07-18T09:23:36.983+01:00Thanks as ever, Aloevera, for your perceptive and ...Thanks as ever, Aloevera, for your perceptive and thought-provoking comments. Great passage. bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15439386754907203808noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10131050.post-51140588888709063962013-07-17T17:59:00.502+01:002013-07-17T17:59:00.502+01:00And as long as I am on an literary bent--here is a...And as long as I am on an literary bent--here is another one--which has long been my guide (although I do flag from time to time)--regarding personal comportment. It comes from the last paragraph of George Eliot's "Middlemarch"--and provides, I think, a good point of balance for those who, like myself, are left-wing in orientation, and are concerned with issues of social justice and equality--issues that do have a tendency (in certain minds) to get a wee bit abstract and to service more one's own interests rather than that of "the People" one purports to help (to put it charitably). <br /><br />In this passage, Eliot rounds up the story of her 19th century heroine, Dorothea--who once lived for the sake of helping the poor (who she, a wealthy aristocrat, hardly knew). Dorothea finally makes her peace with the world--and recognizes the importance of being decent on the local level--to the people around her:<br /><br />"Her finely touched spirit had still its fine issues, though they were not widely visible. Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs."Aloeveranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10131050.post-73712089592894952592013-07-17T17:49:49.980+01:002013-07-17T17:49:49.980+01:00Bob--
Your post reminds me of a very popular song ...Bob--<br />Your post reminds me of a very popular song from my youth--during the 1968 student riots (New York City version)--from the musical "Hair"; the song "Easy to Be Hard"--these passages (written in subtle mockery of the then prevailing ethos?):<br /><br />How can people be so heartless?<br />How can people be so cruel?<br />Easy to be hard, easy to be cold<br /><br />How can people have no feelings?<br />How can they ignore their friends?<br />Easy to be proud, easy to say no<br /><br />And especially people who care about strangers<br />Who care about evil and social injustice<br />Do you only care about the bleeding crowd?<br />How about a needing friend? I need a friend...Aloeveranoreply@blogger.com