Eppie
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This is another one of my educational attempts to help Donald the Dumb to wake up from living his deplorable life. Donald the Dumb repeats daily a theme and variation of this quote, "I'm, like, a really smart person." Depending on the version of the Donald's statement, there are over 9.5 million links. Even Donald the Dumb doesn't believe that he is really that smart. Therefore, allow me another attempt to educate the Donald, even though he went to Wharton. Before going to college, I attended Mt. Lebanon High School where I had to memorize a hundred lines of poetry or prose each semester. During my senior year, the class had just read Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe by George Eliot. Most of the class loved the story. I certainly did. Eliot wrote her novella in 1861, exactly a century before I graduated from Mt. Lebanon. George Eliot was a pseudonym for Mary Ann Evans, which was due to issues of sexism in the Victorian Age. Women weren't considered able to write serious literary works during that time. Sexism was prevalent even before the Donald. This literary sexism was different than the Donald seeing women as mere sex objects. Here are two illustrations. #1. #2.
I liked Silas Marner so much that I picked one paragraph, which essentially was the point of Eliot's novella. Even today, I can recall most of this one paragraph.
George Eliot's novella was a story about a rich old man who is a weaver by trade. All that Silas wanted was money. When he amassed more money, he wanted even more money. That's all that life was for him...a means for making more money. Silas didn't share any of his fortune; he merely stored his gold away as he continued to grow still older. One winter's night, a small toddler literally wandered into his home and into his life. Her name was Eppie. Her mother had died, and Silas provided for this little girl. 
That single act of love and kindness changed Silas' life. He lived another sixteen years caring for Eppie. In the process of caring for Eppie, Silas became a new person. He now had a purpose for living beyond amassing money for the sake of being richer. Eliot was correct about her assertion about life that often "a hand is put into theirs, which leads them forth gently towards a calm and bright land, so that they look no more backward; and the hand may be a little child's." 
"It is never too late to be what you might have been." Therefore, the 21st century version of Silas Marner, is the Donald. Donald the Dumb has a choice. Listen to George Eliot's haunting paragraph and to utilize it late in his life. It is a clear choice. Either your purpose for living is to acquire money or to use it to benefit those in need. If Donald the Dumb wants a purpose in life, other than getting richer, he needs an Eppie. Finally, this one sentence, which applies directly to the Donald, is from Eliot's Middlemarch, which she wrote in 1872. "It is never too late to be what you might have been." Yo, Donald, the clock is ticking.... This is a video of Silas Marner with Ben Kinsley as Silas Marner.
Visit the On Seeing the Light page to read more about this topic.
Visit the Connecting the Dots page to read more about this topic.
Visit the Darkest Before Dawn page to read more about this topic.
"The Hand May Be a Little Child's" Visit the "The Hand May Be a Little Child's" page to read more about this topic.
Visit the Man in the Arena page to read more about this topic.
Visit the Donald the Dumb page to read more about this topic.
Forrest Gump, "Stupid is as stupid does." Visit the Stupid is As Stupid Does page to read more about this topic.
Visit the Best and Worst of Times page to read more about this topic. 03/01/17 Follow @mountain_and_me |
