Wicked... and the cost of belonging...or not

 3/28/10

I am a lover of books and a lover of quotes. I have about ten years worth of favorite quotes on a fried hard drive with no backup disc. A tech says it would cost me about $600 to retrieve them so they remain a painful loss at the moment. But I realized today that Google is storing this blog for me so I can start a new list here.

I just finished reading the book "Wicked" by Gregory Maguire. It runs around 400 pages and three sections in it particularly caught my eye on this first read. I may well read it again someday, there is a lot of thought provoking material there and I would certainly recommend it highly. Anyway, the three quotes I want to save here:

"There was much to hate in this world, and too much to love."

"When the times are a crucible, when the air is full of crisis, those who are the most themselves are the victims. But the choice to save yourself can itself be deadly."

and finally...

"Maybe the definition of home is the place where you are never forgiven, so you may always belong there bound by guilt. And maybe the cost of belonging is worth it."

A lot of the proverbial food for thought in these quotes, for me at least, so I assume others might find them equally provocative. I want to write about the third one in particular tonight. I must say I would prefer to think of home as the place you are always loved, of course love can cause bonds of guilt as well. The "cost of belonging" has always interested me in both the microcosm of family and the larger world of our society as well. Really all three of the quotes above speak to the issue.(If you ever want to see this idea worked out visually see the movie "Witness". An outsider must hide within an Amish community. He becomes involved with one of the women, and the whole idea of what it costs her to belong is played out in a stunning barn building scene where not a word is spoken.)

Anyway, the cost of belonging versus the cost of not belonging. Here is what I think. It is something to which we should all give a lot of thought.