“I say to life, "You are very hard", and I also say: "We are blind, we prefer to be blind. It is easier...". Life has to be hard to have any affect on us; even now we hardly notice it. Beyond that can one go? I must. I add, "We are also blind to the miracles of good that come to us. We hardly heed them, we even protest against them". Then I am left where I was, appalled by the hardness of life, knowing we are forced to be unwilling heroes. Suddenly I wonder--is all hardness justified because we are so slow in realizing that life was meant to be heroic? Greatness is required of us. That is life's aim and justification, and we poor fools have for centuries been trying to make it convenient, manageable, pliant to our will. It is also peaceful and tender and funny and dull. Yes, all that.”
“I say to life, "You are very hard", and I also say: "We are blind, we prefer to be blind. It is easier...". Life has to be hard to have any affect on us; even now we hardly notice it. Beyond that can one go? I must. I add, "We are also blind to the miracles of good that come to us. We hardly heed them, we even protest against them". Then I am left where I was, appalled by the hardness of life, knowing we are forced to be unwilling heroes. Suddenly I wonder--is all hardness justified because we are so slow in realizing that life was meant to be heroic? Greatness is required of us. That is life's aim and justification, and we poor fools have for centuries been trying to make it convenient, manageable, pliant to our will. It is also peaceful and tender and funny and dull. Yes, all that.”
Florida Scott-Maxwell
“My kitchen linoleum is so black and shiny that I waltz while I wait for the kettle to boil. This pleasure is for the old who live alone.”
Florida Scott-Maxwell“Age puzzles me. I thought it was a quiet time. My seventies were interesting and fairly serene, but my eighties are passionate. I grow more intense as I age.”
Florida Scott-Maxwell“You need to claim the events in your life to make yourself yours. When you truly possess all you have been and done which may take some time you are fierce with reality.”
Florida Scott-Maxwell“We who are old know that age is more than a disability. It is an intense and varied experience almost beyond our capacity at times but something to be carried high.”
Florida Scott-Maxwell“It is not easy to be sure that being yourself is worth the trouble but [we do know] it is our sacred duty.”
Florida Scott-Maxwell“Age puzzles me. I thought it was a quiet time. My seventies were interesting and fairly serene but my eighties are passionate. I grow more intense as I age.”
Florida Scott-Maxwell“No matter how old a mother is she watches her middle-aged children for signs of improvement.”
Florida Scott-Maxwell“No matter how old a mother is she still watches her middle-aged children for signs of improvement.”
Florida Scott-Maxwell“You need only claim the events of your life to make yourself yours. When you truly possess all you have been and done, which may take some time, you are fierce with reality. When at last age has assembled you together, will it not be easy to let it all go, lived, balanced, over?”
Florida Scott-Maxwell“Difficulties are what makes it honorable and interesting to be alive.”
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