Among those who share a throne there can be no loyalty; Dominion's ever impatient consort.
LucanRead
I have a wife, I have sons: all of them hostages given to fate.
Interpretation
This quote expresses the vulnerability and unpredictability of loved ones in the face of fate.
Lucan reflects on the idea that our closest relationships, such as those with a spouse and children, can often feel like they are at the mercy of external forces beyond our control. The use of the term 'hostages' suggests a profound sense of helplessness and the inevitable uncertainties that life brings, emphasizing the fragility of human connections.
In practice
In a speech about the unpredictability of life during a family gathering.
You see, the outcome of the battle is unimportant. What matters is the chaos, and the slaughter.
There is a purpose to our lives, even if it is sometimes hidden from us, and even if the biggest turning points and heartbreaks only make sense as we look back, rather than as we are experiencing them. So we might as well live life as if - as the poet Rumi put it - everything is rigged in our favor.
I'd be so fascinated to talk to a psychologist or sociologist about the deep psychological impact of seeing oneself represented. I don't think we've really touched the surface of what it does to the psyche of a people if the only image of you out there is negative. Or if it's never out there.
Africa, help me to go home, carry me like an aged child in your arms. Undress me and wash me. Strip me of all of these garments, strip me as a man strips off dreams when the dawn comes. . . .
Each time a new baby is born there is a possibility of reprieve. Each child is a new being, a potential prophet, a new spiritual prince, a new spark of light precipitated into the outer darkness.
We live now in an era where normal values have been displaced. The good is called bad, the bad - good.
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