She felt that she would have to be much more than just a doctor or an engineer. She would have to be a saint.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the need for individuals to embody higher ideals beyond their professional roles.
Flannery O'Connor's quote reflects the understanding that certain professions, like being a doctor or engineer, carry significant moral and ethical responsibilities. It suggests that truly excelling in such roles requires a compassionate and selfless nature, akin to that of a saint, indicating the importance of integrity and empathy in one's work.
In practice
During a graduation speech to inspire students entering the medical field.
Let me make no bones about it: I write from the standpoint of Christian orthodoxy. Nothing is more repulsive to me than the idea of myself setting up a little universe of my own choosing and propounding a little immoralistic message. I write with a solid belief in all the Christian dogmas.
What people donβt realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.
If you live today, you breath in nihilism ... it's the gas you breathe. If I hadn't had the Church to fight it with or to tell me the necessity of fighting it, I would be the stinkingest logical positivist you ever saw right now.
There won't be any biographies of me because, for only one reason, lives spent between the house and the chicken yard do not make exciting copy.
Knowing who you are is good for one generation only. You haven't the foggiest idea where you stand now or who you are
He loved her because it was his nature to do so, but there were times when he could not endure her love for him. There were times when it became nothing but pure idiot mystery.
Flint has the potential to produce fire, and gems have intrinsic value. We ordinary people can see neither our own eyelashes, which are so close, nor the heavens in the distance. Likewise, we do not see that the Buddha exists in our own hearts.
However great may be the work for which we are responsible, we will always do well if we pause to spend time in sacred praise.
Sigh... I have learned that *everything* is so hard...except what Allah makes easy. So we must *beg* Him to make it easy on us.
If you are an enemy to your own mind, other people have to become enemies too, sooner or later. Until you understand, until you can love the thoughts that appear in your mind, then you can love the rest of us. You work with the projector -the mind - not the projected world. I can't really love you until I question the mind that thinks it sees you outside itself . . .
For truth has such a face and such a mien, as to be loved needs only to be seen.
If what you want to tell me is neither True nor Good nor even Useful, why tell it to me at all
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