Reading Mary Balogh, "The Proposal":
And there:
(...) She turned her head away from him once more.
“You are the head of the house now, Hugo,” she said bitterly. “If you choose to bring my mother here, I cannot stop you.”
He opened his mouth to say more but then shut it again. She did not feel she could say yes, he supposed, without somehow losing face. So she had put the responsibility of the decision upon his shoulders. Well, they were broad enough.
(...) All people, he thought with a sigh as he left the room, had their own demons to be fought—or not fought. Perhaps that was what life was all about. Perhaps life was a test to see how well we deal with our own particular demons, and how much sympathy we show others as they tread their own particular path through life. As someone had once said—was it in the Bible?—it is easy enough to see the speck of dust in someone else’s eye while remaining unaware of the plank in one’s own.(...)
And everyone will see the above thoughts differently. Some will learn something, some will just think "I know better...". Hugo, the hero of this particular novel, has his own demons that he has to fight with. But he also has to fight with other people demons. Some of them are benign, but some are nasty. I love this book! And love the author.
P.S. Here is the interview with Mary Balogh kindly provided in a comment by Laura:
I am reading this book today: https://www.amazon.pl/Now-Physics-Time-Richard-Muller/dp/0393285235
ReplyDeleteThe conviction that the purpose of life is to fight demons guarantees their permanent presence. Getting rid of a fever is not about fighting the temperature but the cause of the fever - that is, the disease that causes it. If we create our demons ourselves, the belief that their presence is necessary - makes it impossible to understand the situation and imposes the fight against them as an obvious necessity. Demons love this approach - because it provides them with a constant supply of fighting energy.
ReplyDelete"Demons love this approach'"
DeleteI am not sure that demons love fighting them. They love taking you over without being identified as such. How do you fight demons? First you identify them, then get rid of them using all possible means, thus look also for the causes they are there.
Anonymous wrote: "The conviction that the purpose of life is to fight demons guarantees their permanent presence. Getting rid of a fever is not about fighting the temperature but the cause of the fever - that is, the disease that causes it."
DeleteClose, but no cigar. "Fever" is not a good analogy for a demon, but the disease causing the fever is just like behavior is just a by-product of "demons" whether psychological, spiritual or physical. In fact, the fever is part of the body's defense system.
The greatest deception of all is the teaching that there are no negative forces, and if there are, in any case, we haven’t to worry about them because, if we just think nice thoughts, meditate regularly, and use our affirmations nothing icky will ever enter our reality. The Apostle Paul wrote in II Corinthians:
“…for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light, So it is not surprising if his servants also masquerade as ministers of righteousness. Their end will correspond with their deeds.”
After thirty-five years studying and teaching metaphysics, including an in-depth analysis of demonic possession and actually performing exorcisms, I can assure you that evil insinuates itself into our lives in the guise of goodness and truth. The difficulty in talking about evil nowadays lies not in the weird or bizarre, but rather from the insistence by the media that religious views of good and evil are outdated. The problem is further exacerbated by the New Age teaching that “evil” simply does not exist unless an individual creates it in their reality. This is an important point because the process of evil follows the line of erosion of our spirituality through the erosion of knowledge. What better way to protect evil activities than to deny that they exist? It is true, in an absolute sense, that evil is “self-created”. But very often the selves which create evil and wish to perpetuate it are those at higher levels and against whom we have no defense except through knowledge of who they are and how they work. We must learn about the lies in order to perceive the truth.
Let me say, then, in this connection, that real understanding in spiritual matters is the result of much bitter fighting, of suffering, spiritual agony and soul passion. Life itself would have no meaning if there was no fighting on all planes, if all was smooth and monotonous. Everything fights in nature. Every plant fights to get more sunlight. Every animal fights for food; the angels themselves fight. Constant struggle on all planes to which it has access is the birthright of the creature. Woe to him who wants to put himself on a level with the Creator and escape fighting! […]
DeleteOn my travels I have met some of the highest spiritual entities incarnated in the flesh, and not only those working for the Creator but also those working against him.
Even the fires of hell have their mission. They destroy man if he is weak, but if he is strong they purify by burning the dross away. […]
Spirituality actually is a very stormy ocean. The currents of life are interwoven, and Good and Evil, Light and Shadow, are within a hairbreadth from each other. [Illion, Darkness Over Tibet, 1937, Rider & Co, London, Reprinted by Adventures Unlimited Press, 1991]
By the way, I've written an extensive piece about Theodor Illion's little classic, "Darkness Over Tibet" that is in three parts, the first part can be found here: Darkness Over Tibet Part 1
DeleteHere's a different take from Jacob Boehme using two the four traditional temperaments. The "adversary" (the devil, demons) pretty much leaves the choleric personality alone, because such a person naturally follows the adversary willingly. By contrast, the melancholic is most aware of the adversary's wiles, most afflicted by them, but by virtue of this is best able to go to battle and overcome them. The adversary prefers the path of least resistance, so those who offer the least resistance are the most afflicted.
DeleteI think, it depends how interpret "fighting", there is difference between active defence like Szczęsny actively defend goal in penalty area and somebody who attack to hurt or dominate or "neutralize" somebody who "make problems."
ReplyDeleteI mean FIGHTING in case of Szczesny's defence is FIGHTING for ball, of course, what could be named: active defence.
DeleteMary Balogh should be a cultural icon. And she would if our society had any culture anymore. But it's all the K-Mart blue light special to perdition these days.
ReplyDeleteWhen I finished writing my latest book, "From Paul to Mark: Paleochristianity", I was utterly, totally, comprehensively, exhausted in body and particularly in mind. The last few years of massive effort to try to wrestle many years of research into some kind of comprehensible form just took a HUGE amount of energy. At the end, I just wanted to read something light and relax my brain.
In the past, when I wanted relaxing reading, I would turn to Agatha Christie and her ilk (early 20th century detective story authors), OR Georgette Heyer who wrote light historical romances. I wasn't quite in the mood for the detective stories, but light romance seemed appealing - you know, some clever dialogue, a little comedy, happy ending. I found a few Heyer books on amazon kindle that I hadn't read, and they were cheap, so I got them. (My favorite is "The Quiet Gentleman"; "Sylvester" and "Devil's Cub" are next favorites; but all of them are highly entertaining for a mind desiring light, somewhat comedic, romantic entertainment with really intelligent dialogue).
I looked around on amazon kindle a bit and noticed that there appeared to be a whole sub-genre of these types of stories, so, I began to sample a few from different authors. What I found was that these stories deal with emotional issues of all sorts. I noticed a few other things. The stories were all about love conquering difficulties; about men acting the way men ought to act toward strong women; about faithfulness, love of home and children, family, honor, honesty, not being ashamed of emotions, and so on. I realized that a lot of the behaviors depicted in the stories were actually good role models for anyone (and the villains were usually pretty well described, too). And all of them were emotionally engaging, some more than others I guess depending on whether or not I really liked the protagonists. I realized that the values represented in these books were actually quite elevated; possibly the historical element had something to do with that; it was highly idealized.
It occurred to me that people must find such stories a good escape from a horrible reality, either their personal lives or the world-at-large. But then, I also thought about the fact that, if people weren’t just escaping into such literature, but rather LEARNING from it, and putting some of what they learned into practice, a very different result would be obtained than just going off into la-la land. Because, it sure appeared to me that many of the problems that were set up as the plot of the stories were problems that many people deal with in one way or another, and a few of the authors were darned good psychologists with excellent insight. (Cont. next comment)
One of the books that stood out was “The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie” which is about the romance of an autistic guy with a phenomenal memory who was locked in an institution by his father as a child and then later taken out by his brother when the father was dead. The story was harrowing, extremely emotionally engaging, and, again, with a happy ending. That book was the first volume of an entire saga about that family and each one dealt with different problems and had a lot of adventures along the way. The characters were very well developed, and even their sex lives reflected their characters which I thought was an interesting touch. And speaking of sex lives, men and women both could learn a lot about a healthy sexual relationship from these books.
ReplyDeleteI recommended some of these authors to our internet discussion forum and a whole reading project was born with members reporting on what they were reading and learning. Nearly without exception, those who went into the project open mindedly had some remarkable insights into their own lives. And the project is ongoing.
The favorite author of everyone seems to be Mary Balogh. She is amazing, really. And finally, the guys who do our "Mind Matters" internet podcast show got her on for an interview:
https://youtu.be/hcFIkHemhzQ
More of "Mind Matters" can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/@MindMattersVideo/videos?view=0&sort=dd&shelf_id=0
Harrison here from MindMatters. Yep, Mary is the best, and you can see why in the interview! She's a beautiful woman with an endlessly creative mind. I'm glad you're enjoying them too, Ark!
DeleteThanks Harrison! But there are also math/phys demons, and here I have to fight them alone. Reading Mary refreshes beautifully my mind though.
DeleteI'm a man. I have read a dozen of Balogh's books. I believe that this is one of the good ways to pull yourself out of the darkness regarding sex life and better understand women. This is a real experience, you can really learn something from these books if you want to. I confirm that.
Delete@Luks
Delete"I'm a man."
Which reminds me of another video from MindMatters:)
What is a woman?
Thank you for these informative comments.
ReplyDelete"One of the books that stood out was “The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie” "
And this one I am slowly devouring right now.
@ Anonymous
ReplyDeleteIf you want to comment, select a permanent unique nick, so that one anonymous can be distinguished from another, and please, write your comments in English - you can use automatic translator, for instance deepl.com