Getting and giving, is great but not always. There are shades of grey, we are proving ourselves, Testing our limits like Raskolnikov or Tamburlaine even. ‘There’s a divinity that shapes our ends’ said Hamlet. Does what I give or get follow my action? Give to the one who responds not to unthinking blonds. Give to a beggar who blesses not to one who looks back to curse. Get from her who never grudges or him who never judges.
‘Everything is nothing’, said Lear’s Fool, then why bother?
Giving can be all a selfish affair. When Austen said, ‘It is a truth
Universally acknowledged’, that a man with a ‘good fortune must be
In want of a wife’, she meant the opposite:
A woman in possession of five daughters is on the lookout for
Good husbands. While a Man gives, a Woman takes
And when the scene is reversed one goes through that witchly
Experience that changed Macbeth to jelly. Giving and getting
Must be left to God; man ruins all he takes firmly into his hands.
Would Napoleon win or Gandhi if they had a duel?
I wouldn't give an inch. Stubborn bastard! ;-)
Ron
Who rises in wisdom, honor, and purpose?
The little man with calloused feet.
Gandhi, hands down
well done