See the hand that nursed the serpent. The fine hasped pipes of her fingerbones. The skin bewenned and speckled. The veins are milkblue and bulby. A thin gold ring set with diamonds. That raised the once child's heart of her to agonies of passion before I was. Here is the anguish of mortality. Hopes wrecked, love sundered. See the mother sorrowing. How everything that I was warned of's come to pass.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the deep pain and regret associated with life's experiences and relationships.
In this poignant reflection by Cormac McCarthy, the speaker acknowledges the complexity of life and the suffering that often accompanies it. The imagery of the mother sorrowing suggests a deeper connection to the pains of mortality, unfulfilled hopes, and fractured love, portraying how these elements shape our existence and resonate through our lives. The quote serves as a meditation on the inevitability of loss and the emotional scars that define our humanity.
In practice
In a discussion on grief and loss, one might use this quote to emphasize the emotional turmoil of life.
Yet it is the narrative that is the life of the dream while the events themselves are often interchangeable. The events of the waking world on the other hand are forced upon us and the narrative is the unguessed axis along which they must be strung.
What he could bear in the waking world he could not by night and he sat awake for fear the dream would return.
The judge placed his hands on the ground. He looked at his inquisitor. This is my claim, he said. And yet everywhere upon it are pockets of autonomous life. Autonomous. In order for it to be mine nothing must be permitted to occur upon it save by my dispensation.
Only now is the child finally divested of all that he has been. His origins are become remote as is his destiny and not again in all the world's turning will there be terrains so wild and barbarous to try whether the stuff of creation may be shaped to man's will or whether his own heart is not another kind of clay.
He knew only that his child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke.
He'd half meant to speak but those eyes had altered the world forever in the space of a heartbeat.
Power ceases in the instant of repose; it resides in the moment of transition from a past to a new state, in the shooting of the gulf, in the darting to an aim.
When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago.
Time is more valuable than money, because time is irreplaceable.
Anxiety is sort of the opposite of ego. You're so sure you'll do everything wrong you're afraid to do anything at all. It results from over-motivation- leading to errors that lead to an underestimation of one's self. Work out your anxieties on paper and read. This calms the mind.
Never confuse motion with action.
Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively.
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