~Where there is sorrow
there is Holy Ground.
~Oscar Wilde
On the surface you may be amiable and flexible, but in your Dark Night you may discover the very important ingredient of toughness. Oscar Wilde provides a good example. He was a brilliant man who played the role of society's fool and fop. He dressed as a dandy and had the reputation of being an expert on superficial style. But he was actually nothing of the sort. Wilde was a thoughtful and religious man, a man of principle who spent years in jail simply on account of his homosexuality. From prison he wrote one of the most remarkable testaments ever written, De Profundis (Out of the Depths), a letter any person suffering a Dark Night might appreciate. The letter is apropos of our theme:
I have been in prison for nearly two years. Out of my nature has come wild despair; an abandonment to grief;...terrible and impotent rage; bitterness and scorn; anguish that wept aloud; misery that could find no voice; sorrow that was dumb...
Now I find hidden somewhere away in my nature something that tells me nothing in the whole world is meaningless, and suffering least of all. That something hidden away in my nature, like a treasure in a field, is humility.
~Thomas Moore/
Oscar Wilde
~Beannaichte'
28 November, 2016
@beannaichte.twitter.com
~Oscar Wilde's 'De Profundis' can be found in its entirety, on the Internet, at various sites. It is a spendid essay, and well worth the reading, especially if you are experiencing Dark Nights of the Soul.
