Timeless Circles

"To talk and laugh. To do each other kindnesses. To read pleasant books together; to pass from lightest joking to talk of deepest things, and back again. To differ without rancor, as a man might differ with himself... these, and such like things, proceeding from our hearts as we gave affection and received it back, and shown by face, by voice, by eyes, and by a thousand pleasing ways, kindled a flame which fused our very souls together, and, of many, made us one." - Augustine, on friendship, in the Confessions.

I was wandering around on the internet the other day, and something about this quote struck me. Now, I'm a sucker for good quotes--but that usually doesn't include sappy love or friendship ones. However, this was written around 400 AD, a good 1600 years ago, and I was just simply struck by the simplicity with which Augustine, in one fell swoop, cut to the very core of friendship. A theme timeless and true.

The fact that it happens to come from Augustine, well, that strikes at another rising theme in life these days. I'm only a few pages short of finishing Thomas Merton's "Seven Storey Mountain." Not familiar with it? Think Joyce's Portrait or Salinger's Catcher, only with a more definitive, fulfilling conclusion and, above all, depicting a journey of growing faith. It's been a wonderful read, had me pondering subjects which I usually gloss over in my life. Not to mention that Merton's rich prose has hit at everything from literature to travel to culture to faith--other than politics, there's little more for which I could ask. I could fill an entire blog with quote-based entries from "Seven Storey Mountain." But I won't--just a few!

What an alien view of Catholicism it is though! Pre-Vatican II, in the eyes of a rigid convert--a sort of stark and naked beauty to the pre-reform Church, but at the same time, Merton's rigid, unbending will appears both stubborn and judgemental, his supreme devotion and faith light years beyond mine aside.