This sentence might be familiar to you, Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, "I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious." When I first read this, two thoughts crossed my mind. First, did Einstein really say this and is it recorded in a book? Naturally, I looked up the quote and found that there is no legitimate source that cites these words ever actually crossed his lips. (A website that calls itself Quote World can't be too creditable, right?)
But secondly, whether he did or not, whoever came up with this sentence hit a concept that speaks to me. The combination of curiosity and passion thrust together is extremely inspiring to me. I desire to be a life long learner and in continuing this blog, I hope to use it to log the results of my curiosity.
Recently I've run across another quote that appears to be a bit more credible. It is taken from the speech William Faulkner gave after receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950. He said,
"...the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat. He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid: and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed — love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice. Until he does so, he labors under a curse. He writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, of victories without hope and, worst of all, without pity or compassion. His griefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands."Even if I don't agree entirely with Faulkner's ideology, this immediately, deeply, resonated with me because I desire from my soul, to muse and understand what is universally true. Not only does this extend to what I believe about religion and eternity, but also the sort of conversation and the sort of literature that moves me from the very depth of my being. I want this blog to include musings that have significance over the universe and across generations. I want to consider the question of : why is this universally true? According what authority?
A few months ago I was reading Paul Tripp's Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands and I wrote this post sharing what I have learned from Tripp so far:
"Human beings were created to be interpreters. We don't just respond to the facts and experiences of our lives, but we respond to our interpretations of those facts. This is why it is very important to make sure our interpretations are always filtered through scripture. If our interpretations are not biblical, then our responses will not be biblical either. Keep guard."
Thus, I included the phrase "life impressions" in the subtitle because I would like to make sure the readers are pointed to the fact that these posts are merely interpretations through my lenses of life. Although not all interpretations are universally true, we all do see life through a certain worldview and I think it is important to try to understand our worldview in an unbiased manner.
I hope that you will enjoy this blog and please feel welcomed to comment--I would love to hear your thoughts!
