An excerpt from a book I recently read. Quite inspiring.
Not one day in anyone’s life…is an uneventful day, no day without profound meaning, no matter how dull and boring it might seem, no matter whether you are a seamstress or a queen, a shoeshine boy or a movie star, a renowned philosopher or a Down’s-syndrome child. Because in every day of your life, there are opportunities to perform little kindnesses for others, both by conscious acts of will and unconscious example. Each smallest act of kindness–even just words of hope when they are needed, the remembrance of a birthday, a compliment that engenders a smile–reverberates across great distances and spans of time, affecting lives unknown to the one whose generous spirit was the source of this good echo, because kindness is passed on and grows each time it’s passed, until a simple courtesy becomes an act of selfless courage years later and far away. Likewise, each small meanness, each thoughtless expression of hatred, each envious and bitter act, regardless of how petty, can inspire others, and is therefore the seed that ultimately produces evil fruit, poisoning people whom you have never met and never will. All human lives are so profoundly and intricately entwined–those dead, those living, those generations yet to come–that the fate of all is the fate of each, and the hope of humanity rests in every heart and in every pair of hands. Therefore, after every failure, we are obliged to strive again for success, and when faced with the end of one thing, we must build something new and better in the ashes, just as from pain and grief, we must weave hope, for each of us is a thread critical to the strength–to the very survival–of the human tapestry. Every hour in every life contains such often-unrecognized potential to affect the world that the great days for which we, in our dissatisfaction, so often yearn are already with us; all great days and thrilling possibilities are combined always in this momentous day.
From the Corner of His Eye
Dean Koontz
February 27, 2008 at 3:28 am
I just recently read this book. I was “inspired”. I have been looking, though, for any writings of St. Bartholomew that Koontz mentions in this book. Evidently, he ‘fudged’ the truth and just made them up.
I agree, fully, with this writing.
I have always believed that what goes around comes around, whether good or bad. One small “give” returns seven-fold.
On the other hand, one bad ‘give’ never stops coming at you.
March 5, 2008 at 4:01 pm
I read this book years ago and was moved by this excerpt.
It’s been on my office wall ever since!
It’s a bit “quantumy” too, I think.
August 22, 2008 at 9:21 am
I read this at a time in my life that was extremely sad. My mother had just died, and I was questioning many things…for some reason, it made me feel very peaceful, and gave me strength to go forward. I wrote Dean Koontz and he wrote me back…just that one small act of kindness made me feel that he truly believed what he wrote…quantumy or not..haha..I have never forgotten it. I knew then that my mom was ok-and me too-I reread that passage all of the time-it has special meaning to me. Who would have ever thought that in a Dean Koontz book I would find meaning that has made such a difference in my life.
December 4, 2008 at 10:20 pm
This is actually not by Dean Koontz or St. Bartholomew. These are the words of a man named H.R. White, given in a speech to the Geneva Convention.
May 25, 2009 at 10:50 am
Doesn’t matter who said it first. Dean Koontz, by publishing it in his novel “From the Corner of His Eye”, saw to it that this marvelous – and TRUE! – thought had a far larger audience than it might have had otherwise.
I also read this book at a dark time of my life, while grieving the loss of my mother, and it gave me such hope and comfort. Mom always said, be kind to that stray dog because you never know when it’ll be your turn to be in need of a scrap of bread or a pat on the head.
Every day, Mom, every day.