Humility

Had a little spare time this weekend so I gulped down two books. One was an old favorite, Barry Hughart’s Bridge of Birds. The other was a recent purchase off Amazon, Jim Butcher’s White Night.

Both are really great books. Not good books. Great books. Books to savor. Books to read and re-read and think about and let them change your life. Here’s a wonderful passage out of White Night that if I think about it enough could do just that:

“Life’s easier when you can write off others as monsters, as demons, as horrible threats that must be hated and feared. The thing is, you can’t do that without becoming them, just a little. Sure, Lasciel’s shadow might be determined to drag my immortal soul down to Perdition, but there was no point hating her for it. It wouldn’t do anything but stain me that much darker.” (310)

Something I’ve known, mused about, tried to write about, but not encapsulated as neatly as this. Hating something violently, passionately, makes us that little bit more like the thing we hate. Draws us that much further down in to the darkness. It’s love, compassion, understanding that sets us free.

Now to write it half as well as Hughart and Butcher do . . .