The Dailies

Word of the Day

Apothecary (n., uh-POTH-ih-CARE-ee)

A pharmacist. That's it.

Gif of the Day

TagsAnimalsDogsHuskiesCouchesPredicamentsThe couch of shameBad Friday nights

Link of the Day

Cry, The Beloved Country

Recently, The Dailies read Alan Paton's 1948 novel Cry, the Beloved Country. Published during the official beginnings of apartheid in South Africa, the novel tells a story that is equally heartbreaking, thought-provoking, and uplifting. Part of this is due to Paton's ability to write striking, memorable lines like these:

We shall be careful, and knock this off our lives, and knock that off our lives, and hedge ourselves about with safety and precaution. And our lives will shrink, but they shall be the lives of superior beings; and we shall live with fear, but at least it will not be a fear of the unknown. And the conscience shall be thrust down; the light of life shall not be extinguished, but be put under a bushel, to be preserved for a generation that will live by it again, in some day not yet come; and how it will come, and when it will come, we shall not think about at all.
The Judge does not make the law. It is people that make the law. Therefore if a law is unjust, and if the Judge judges according to the law, that is justice, even if it is not just.
— This world is full of trouble, umfundisi.
— Who knows it better?
— Yet you believe?
Kumalo looked at him under the light of the lamp. I believe, he said, but I have learned that it is a secret. Pain and suffering, they are a secret. Kindness and love, they are a secret. But I have learned that kindness and love can pay for pain and suffering. There is my wife, and you, my friend, and these people who welcomed me, and the child who is so eager to be with us here in Ndotsheni – so in my suffering I can believe.
— I have never thought that a Christian would be free of suffering, umfundisi. For our Lord suffered. And I come to believe that he suffered, not to save us from suffering, but to teach us how to bear suffering. For he knew that there is no life without suffering.
Kumalo looked at his friend with joy. You are a preacher, he said.

Paton's novel may not perfectly align with our modern sensibilities; some have criticized the novel for being relatively unconcerned with the societal injustice and focusing instead on inner wrong. But that is the point of the novel and what gives it enduring power. Paton's work hits home for us. It demands to be reckoned with on its own terms.

TagsLiteratureCry, The Beloved CountryAlan PatonSouth AfricaApartheidInjusticeThe Human Condition