Literary Loveliness

While discussing grace in my Intro to the Christian Faith class, we were assigned to read Victor Hugo's Les Misérables. This was most fortuitous as a ppreparationfor going to see RHS do the musical version next month (Yaaaay! Portland!) and because awesome literature makes me happy. This is awesome literature. These are some of the quotes that struck me the most. Some are simply beautiful others merely resonate with my current mindset. I'll let you determine which is which.

"He plainly perceived this truth, the basis of his life henceforth that so long as she should be alive, so long as he should have her with him, he should need nothing except for her, and fear nothing save on her account."

"Her happiness was the aim of my life. Now, God may beckon me away. Cosette, you are happy; my time is full."

"It is all over. I shall never see her more. She is a smile which has passed over me. I am going to enter into the night without even seeing her again. Oh! a minute, an instant, and then to die! It is nothing to die, but it is dreadful to die without seeing her. She would smile upon me, she would say a word to me. Would that harm anybody? No, it is over, forever. Here I am, all alone. My God! my God! I shall never see her again!"

"These two beings, who loved each other so exclusively, and with so touching a love, and who had lived so long for each other, were now suffering by each other, and through each other; without speaking of it, without harsh feeling, and smiling the while."

"And then, is it not when the fall is lowest that charity ought to be greatest?"

"He fell upon the seat, she by his side. There were no more words. The stars were beginning to shine. How was it that their lips met? How is it that the birds sing, that the snow melts, that the rose opens, that May blooms, that the dawn whitens behind the black trees on the shimmering summit of hills?"

"The smile of the woman whom we love has a brilliancy which we can see by night."

"It was all over with him. Marius loved a woman. His destiny was entering upon the unknown"

"Alas, the supreme ordeal, let us say rather, the only ordeal, is the loss of the beloved being."

"Love each other dearly always. There is scarcely anything else in the world but that: to love one another."

"A Dream is a WIsh Your Heart Makes"

Does that include nightmares?

I've been having a lot of bad dreams for....several months now. Usually they're just shocking, embarrassing, or saddening, but last night's imagining was by far the most memorably frightening.

I won't go into details, but I will say these dreams are often of a disturbing nature and involve me doing awful things I would (or at least should) never do in reality and feeling totally content or even really happy doing it. The cast of characters in my dreams tends to vary pretty widely, with repeats being a rarity. This...keeps it interesting? I don't know.

Probably the worst dreams are the happy ones. Like ones where I'm with my best friend and then I wake up to discover that Best Friend isn't here. No, Best Friend is so very far away.

As far as last night's dream is concerned, I don't remember a lot of it, but the thing that stands out to me the most is the fact that Daddy went crazy. Daddy tried to kill me because I found out (by reading the back of a spoon) he was having loco serial killer (or, in light of the spoon, perhaps cereal killer?...I slay me!) thoughts against Mommy. Then I said something about Jesus that he didn't like or something...and he tried to strangle me.

First of all, Daddy, you are not a serial(/cereal) killer. I think the only reason you parental types were in this dream was because Parent's Weekend is tomorrow(!!!) so I was thinking about you near the time I went to bed. I'm pretty sure the sinister part of my dream was inspired by this creepy short story by Truman Capote called "Miriam" I had to read for my literature class. It had this scary little girl in it who I'm pretty sure just came to harass people right before they died...IT'S LIKE THE RING! AHHHH!

You might have noticed I said this was the most memorable frightening dream I've had. That's because the first fantasy in this multi-month-spanning series was also a nightmare, but I can't remember anything about it. All I recall is waking up very early that morning realizing that I'd had some sort of terrible nightmare, not remembering what it was at all, and being very frightened for over and hour. I was overcome with a grave sense of peril and foreboding.

If these are the wishes my heart makes...I need a transplant.

May I return to the beginning
The light is dimming, and the dream is too
The world and I, we are still waiting
Still hesitating
Any dream will do
- Donny Osmond, "Any Dream Will Do"

A Penetrating Experience.

1. I told my parents about it before I did it, so I'm not a rebel.

2. I did research and visited the place beforehand, so I'm not stupid.

3. I'm not going to start wearing revealing clothes to show it off, so I'm not a tramp.

4. I did it for myself and nobody else, so I'm not a slave to peer-pressure.


Oh, also:
5. It's cute, so...it's cute!

I've got you under my skin
I've got you deep in the heart of me
You're so deep in my heart, that you're really a part of me
And I've got you under my skin
- Michael Bublé, "I've Got You Under My Skin"

P.S. - Yes, it hurt.

For Good

I've heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn,
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them,
And we help them in return.
Well, I don't know if I believe that's true,
But I know I'm who I am today
Because I knew you.

Like a comet pulled from orbit
As it passes a sun,
Like a stream that meets a boulder
Halfway through the wood;
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you
I have been changed for good

It well may be
That we will never meet again
In this lifetime.
So let me say before we part,
So much of me
Is made of what I learned from you.
You'll be with me
Like a handprint on my heart.
And now whatever way our stories end
I know you have re-written mine
By being my friend.

Like a ship blown from its mooring
By a wind off the sea,
Like a seed dropped by a skybird
In a distant wood;
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you,
Because I knew you,
I have been changed for good.

And just to clear the air,
I ask forgiveness
For the things I've done you blame me for.
But then, I guess we know
There's blame to share,
And none of it seems to matter anymore

...

Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
I do believe I have been changed for the better.

And because I knew you
Because I knew you
Because I knew you
I have been changed for good.

Idina Menzel & Kristin Chenoweth, Wicked