Posts: 1399
From:
Registered: Apr 2009

posted September 25, 2009 02:45 PM         

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quote:

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Ahhh, redemption, that is the one I'm always chasing... another deep well with slimy things at the bottom...

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As the light grows, we see ourselves to be worse than we thought. We are amazed at our former blindness as we see issuing from our heart a whole swarm of shameful feelings, like filthy reptiles crawling from a hidden cave. But we must be neither amazed nor disturbed. We are not worse than we were; on the contrary, we are better. But while our faults diminish, the light we see them by waxes brighter, and we are filled with horror. So long as there is no sign of cure, we are unaware of the depth of our disease; we are in a state of blind presumption and hardness, the prey of self-delusion. While we go with the stream, we are unconscious of its rapid course; but when we begin to stem it ever so little, it makes itself felt.

~ Fenelon

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Posts: 1625
From: Dayton,Ohio USA
Registered: May 2009

posted September 26, 2009 02:12 AM         

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From 'Dead Man Walking', (the film)
"you have to particpate in your own redemption"

a line that has always compeled me.

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Posts: 1399
From:
Registered: Apr 2009

posted September 26, 2009 07:58 AM         

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That's one of my favorite movies.

“Hell is yourself
and the only redemption
is when a person puts himself aside
to feel deeply for another person.”
~ Tennessee Williams

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Posts: 1625
From: Dayton,Ohio USA
Registered: May 2009

posted September 26, 2009 03:25 PM         

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Yes, I believe that the key to redemption is love too.

But there is a catch, (isn't there always?) loving someone is easy when they love you back, your getting something out of it, so in a way, your doing it for them and for your own reasons.

Can (you) learn to love the unlovable? Without expectations? Can you love the smelly homeless man sitting on the ground by the 7/11? Can you love the elderly whose minds are gone and bodies are twisted from age and disease? Can you love the little children that have learning disabilities or social adjustment problems, which work on your nerves to be around them?
This is the way in which my life has begun, in say the last 3 years or so, to find redemption.
There was a time I could only love the beautiful, the smart, the darlings of the world. Call it shallow, call it youth, immaturity, whatever.

The biggest challenge in loving the unlovable in the quest for redemption is:

Can you love yourself??? (gulp, hard one)

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Posts: 144
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Registered: Jul 2009

posted September 28, 2009 11:33 PM         

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How are you?

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Posts: 144
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Registered: Jul 2009

posted September 28, 2009 11:36 PM         

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Do you like Monty Python?

"Eureka!"

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Posts: 1399
From:
Registered: Apr 2009

posted September 29, 2009 03:38 PM         

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Good points, Gypsee.

One of my favorites, jane.

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