Every day I find something somewhere to like. It’s not always pretty, but it’s always interesting (to me), provocative (to some), or at least – like yesterday’s post – PG-13. Today’s Word of the Day is not a word, but a quote, found in a NY Times op-ed in the midst of a discussion of Joe Biden’s son’s death. And while I don’t do politics here in these pages, there’s always room for timeless wisdom. By any criteria, this certainly qualifies. Aeschylus wrote:
“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.”
You don’t have to be a Greek tragedian like Aeschylus to see this truth. You just have to experience loss and be honest about it. Everyone’s had losses. Not everyone expresses it as eloquently as Aeschylus.
“Hey, it ain’t all supermodels and speedboats, y’know.”
DEA Agent Hank Schrader – on a stake-out – in Breaking Bad.
POSTSCRIPT <From Wikipedia>
In 458 BC, Aeschylus returned to Sicily for the last time, visiting the city of Gela where he died in 456 or 455 BC. Valerius Maximus wrote that he was killed outside the city by a tortoise dropped by an eagle (possibly a lammergeier or Cinereous vulture, which do feed on tortoises by dropping them on hard objects) which had mistaken his bald head for a rock suitable for shattering the shell of the reptile. Pliny, in his Naturalis Historiæ, adds that Aeschylus had been staying outdoors to avoid a prophecy that he would be killed by a falling object.
There. See?
Timeless wisdom, Greek tragedy, and Breaking Bad too.
Who could ask for anything more?
Yer welcome.