I read John Donne's Meditation XVII in high school lit. It's awesome that I didn't waste my time there, because this passage has really come back to me again and again, for different reasons. The phrase "no man is an island" is from this essay. If you haven't read the whole thing, I think it'd be worth the extra few minutes(and you'll get more of where I'm coming from in this post).
It's basically about death and the interconnectedness of all people-
"If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee."
Recently, though, I've been thinking about this other part, because I am big into books, and this metaphor really speaks to me:
"[A]ll mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated; God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God's hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall lie open to one another."
It's just a great picture to me that death is not the end, that a person is not discarded when they do die- but translated. At the end of all time, that book will be open and the true story of mankind will be made known. I talked somewhat about this end of time idea in my post Eagle Eye and Hope. But here, I think just the idea of people being chapters in books- to be remembered for good or bad, is powerful to me.
Almost two months ago, the day before Thanksgiving, my grandfather died in a car accident. His life was so great and long- my grandparents were world travelers, missionaries, and pastors. They were connected at the hip. I talked to grandmother last night, and it has been so hard for her. He was my family's great leader and jokester, often prone to long prayers and songs in multiple languages. The bell tolls for me here. Losing him is a big blow to me, as it is to my whole family. I thought I'd have him around a lot longer, even though his life was already so long.
At the same time, even if I have nothing to do with Haiti, the bell also tolls for me here:
And so since we're interconnected, since I feel the pain of my fellow mankind like I feel the pain for my grandfather, are we always going to be aching? Is this life only one of pain and nothing else? Disasters happen all the time; people die all the time. No, not at all- as Donne puts it- "Tribulation is treasure in the nature of it, but it is not current money in the use of it, except we get nearer and nearer our home, heaven, by it."
No, this pain is not wasted- it brings us closer to God, closer to heaven. Many times we only see how frail we really are in troubled times- because it is God who "gives to all mankind life and breath and everything."(Act 17:25) And many times, it is even through seeing others' pain when we get our priorities straight.
It's basically about death and the interconnectedness of all people-
"If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee."
Recently, though, I've been thinking about this other part, because I am big into books, and this metaphor really speaks to me:
"[A]ll mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated; God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God's hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall lie open to one another."
It's just a great picture to me that death is not the end, that a person is not discarded when they do die- but translated. At the end of all time, that book will be open and the true story of mankind will be made known. I talked somewhat about this end of time idea in my post Eagle Eye and Hope. But here, I think just the idea of people being chapters in books- to be remembered for good or bad, is powerful to me.
Almost two months ago, the day before Thanksgiving, my grandfather died in a car accident. His life was so great and long- my grandparents were world travelers, missionaries, and pastors. They were connected at the hip. I talked to grandmother last night, and it has been so hard for her. He was my family's great leader and jokester, often prone to long prayers and songs in multiple languages. The bell tolls for me here. Losing him is a big blow to me, as it is to my whole family. I thought I'd have him around a lot longer, even though his life was already so long.
At the same time, even if I have nothing to do with Haiti, the bell also tolls for me here:
And so since we're interconnected, since I feel the pain of my fellow mankind like I feel the pain for my grandfather, are we always going to be aching? Is this life only one of pain and nothing else? Disasters happen all the time; people die all the time. No, not at all- as Donne puts it- "Tribulation is treasure in the nature of it, but it is not current money in the use of it, except we get nearer and nearer our home, heaven, by it."
No, this pain is not wasted- it brings us closer to God, closer to heaven. Many times we only see how frail we really are in troubled times- because it is God who "gives to all mankind life and breath and everything."(Act 17:25) And many times, it is even through seeing others' pain when we get our priorities straight.
In light of this, the idea that any death makes mankind and every man less, paining any who realize the loss, isn't it amazing that it is only through Christ's death that pain can be removed from us all.
ReplyDeleteOne thing Donne doesn't mention is that, though death and pain in the world may bring us closer to God, closer to heaven, that is only true because Jesus, the one who was more than all, defeated death.
Thanks for the post Kelsey, all I really remembered of reading this in high school was "ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee" and apparently that is a misquote anyway :)
Yeah, thanks for pointing out the obvious that I missed here- Jesus, through his death, removes real death from us. Nice. I was trying to come up with why we weren't always to despair- and while the point I got from Donne is true- yours is the more important and truer.
ReplyDelete