Motivation

Graham Greene's novel "The Heart of the Matter" looks at the human condition in a primal sort of way.  He has great insight into how we function when we run into our limits.  Do we try to create ways to withstand those difficulties?  Or  do we find excuses and blame the conditions that trap us rather than admitting that we have little control over what happens to us and move forward with a  'nevertheless?'  He thinks some people understandably stop trusting that things will change--that grief, despair, and oppression will always dominate our lives.   Greene writes of a kind of 'happiness' that breaks into life from time to time.  His happiness is a blink in time and quickly passes, passing quickly away, unknown  if not acknowledged immediately. These 'happiness' moments happen too seldom and only last a nano second, so it is important to be aware and looking for it. It may come right now for instance not for hours, days or weeks.   We cannot force this moment to happen, but we can recognize, elevate it and even find sustenance from these brief glimpses that can move us to our next responsibility, to grasp our identity, and to celebrate life when no one else understands what we're up to.  In his novel, "The Power and the Glory", this becomes the pattern for his 'whisky priest', an ongoing redemption that resembles condemnation.  No, it's not rational.  It's trust.  Greene seems to suggest that as the 'Heart of the Matter.'

The name of these musings is "Heart of the Matter." My involvement in concerns of citizenship from the neighborhood to international level will shape these posts.  It will tend to be serendipitous, triggered by events of the day and the experiences I am having.  Moving from the mundane out or perhaps down is the 'Heart of the Matter." (HOTM).