God’s mysterious ways...

THE USUALLY MISQUOTED ORIGIN: “God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform; He plants his footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm.”         William Cowper (1731-1800)         British poet and hymn writer         From his Hymn No. 35, “Light Shining Out of Darkness”         These are the opening lyrics of the hymn, which was first published in Olney Hymns (1779). The first two lines are usually misquoted as “God moves in mysterious ways his wonders to perform” and often wrongly assumed to be a Bible quote.

THE INSURANCE COMPANY ANALOGY “Insurance companies move in mysterious ways. Much like God...only far less generous.”         The character Standish, played by actor Dan Duryea         In the 1965 movie The Flight of the Phoenix

T.S. ELIOT’S HIPPO ANALOGY “The hippopotamus’s day Is passed in sleep; at night he hunts; God works in a mysterious way The Church can feed and sleep at once.”         T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)         American-born British poet and playwright         In his poem “The Hippopotamus” (1919)

MURPHY’S REVELATION: “Life is mysterious to some, but God does not work in mysterious ways. The things which some consider as mysteries, others consider as revelations.”         Zuriel Ann Murphy         Nigerian-born UK inspirational author and speaker         In her book The Spoken Word (2013)

RACHEL’S REVELATION: “God doesn’t work in mysterious ways. He doesn’t give a shit. Everything doesn’t happen for a reason. Shit happens. Having faith doesn't make any difference. It’s just something to do while you go from point A to point B.”         John Rachel         American novelist and non-fiction book author         The inner thoughts of a character in his novel The Man Who Loved Too Much, Book 1: Archipelago (2015)

ALTERNATIVES TO THE PLATITUDE: “When people are in the middle of the darkest storm imaginable, the last thing they want to be told is that God is working everything together for good, and to trust in God's mysterious ways. It is not helpful. It is not comforting. It does not bring healing...The implication that God has predestined pain and suffering is unloving and can drive people away from the church. Making them a sandwich would be a better plan. Or cleaning their house. Or taking their children for an afternoon. Or just listening to them or sitting with them in silence.”         Natalie Toon Patton         American essayist, blogger and author         In her essay “8 Sayings Christians Use to Let Ourselves off the Hook”         Posted on the Sojo.net “faith in action” website, August 29, 2017

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Related reading…

“Hell is other people” – and their taste in music…

THE FAMOUS EXISTENTIALIST’S OPINION: “Hell is other people.” (“L’enfer, c’est les Autres.”)        Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)        French existential philosopher and writer and Marxist social activist        This is the oft-quoted line from Sartre’s play No Exit (titled Huis Clos in French), spoken by the character Joseph Garcin. The play was first performed in French at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier theatre in Paris in May 1944. It was first performed in English at the Biltmore Theatre in New York City in 1946, using the translation by the renowned Beat writer and translator, Paul Bowles.          Bowles was a bit creative in his translation. “Huis clos” is a French idiomatic expression that’s similar to the English legal term “in camera,” meaning a judicial proceeding or discussion held in private. In fact, the play has sometimes been performed and filmed in English under the title In Camera.        A more literal translation of “Huis Clos” would be “behind closed doors.” However, the play is best known by the title Bowles came up with. Apparently, it was a hellish translation challenge for him. In the biography Paul Bowles: A Life, he is quoted as saying: “I’m not very good at titles. It took me six weeks to get No Exit out of Huis Clos.”        No Exit/Huis Clos is about the three doomed souls: a man, Joseph Garcin, and two women, Inès Serrano and Estelle Rigault. They are condemned to Hell for their sins. But instead of facing flames and torture, they are locked together in a room furnished in the Second French Empire style. (Hellish in itself!) There’s not much for them to do except talk about themselves and eventually deal with Estelle’s attempt to seduce Joseph.

THE DEVIL’S TAKE: “Have you heard the expression ‘Hell is other people’? This is true, especially if the other people are French.”        Satan (as quoted by writer David Katz)        In a humorous “interview” with the Lord of Hell, “What I’ve Learned: Satan,” published in Esquire magazine, January 2007.

T.S. ELIOT’S TAKE: “What is hell? Hell is oneself,   Hell is alone, the other figures in it   Merely projections. There is nothing to escape from   And nothing to escape to. One is always alone.”        T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)        British poet and playwright        Said by the character Edward Chamberlayne in Eliot’s play The Cocktail Party, first performed in 1949. In the play, Edward makes amends with his wife Lavinia at a party, after they’d split due to his infidelity. It was the most popular of Eliot’s seven plays in his lifetime.

THE ERNEST HEMINGWAY VARIATION: “Hell isn’t other people; it’s other people when you’re sober.”        Marty Beckerman        American author        In his very funny book The Heming Way, which spoofs Ernest Hemingway’s uber-manly attitudes and behavior. The subtitle is How to Unleash the Booze-Inhaling, Animal-Slaughtering, War-Glorifying, Hairy-Chested Retro-Sexual Legend Within, Just Like Papa!

THE POSITIVE SPIN VARIATION: “Hell may be other people, but they’re all we’ve got.”        Stephanie Zacharek        Film critic for Time magazine        Her encapsulation of the point of the movie Wilson (starring Woody Harrelson as the title character), in her review in Time, April 3, 2017. The film is based on the graphic novel by American cartoonist Daniel Clowes.

THE MUSICAL TRUISM: “Hell is other people’s taste in music.”        David McGimpsey        Canadian poet and novelist        In his book of sonnets, Li’l Bastard (2011)

THE POLITICAL TRUISM “Hell is other people’s politics.”        John Guzlowski         Polish-born American writer and poet        His response on Twitter to a tweet by Quaint Magazine that said: “Throughout the next few days, we'll be reposting links to work we've published that speaks to the current political climate.”

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Related reading and stuff…

Measuring out life with coffee spoons (and various other things)…

T.S. ELIOT’S FAMOUS LINE: “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.”        T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)        American-born British poet         This is one of the most quoted lines from Eliot’s early poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” first published in the June 1, 1915 edition of Poetry magazine. It is sometimes misquoted as “I have measured out my life in coffee spoons.” Initial critical reception of the poem was mixed. But it launched Eliot’s career as a poet and gave him initial visibility that grew to worldwide fame with publication of his other early masterpieces of modernist verse: “Gerontion” (1920), “The Waste Land” (1922) and “The Hollow Men” (1925). “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” was included in Eliot’s first book of collected verse, Prufrock and Other Observations (1917). It remains one of his most best-known poems and contains several passages found in many books of quotations. For more background on the poem see the post about it on my This Day in Quotes site.

A STRESSED PARENT'S TAKE ON COLLEGE TUITION: "As the mother of a new college graduate, I am reminded today of T.S. Eliot, the famous St. Louis-born poet who will be forever remembered for the line in that one poem of his that resonates with parents everywhere: 'I have measured out my life in tuition years.' At least I THINK he wrote that. I mean, T.S. Eliot sure never had to pay tuition. His grandfather founded Washington University...Which means he graduated debt-free. Which explains why he could pursue a career in poetry. Which you hope your own son isn't considering. I mean, what kind of benefits package does THAT offer?"        Mary Bufe        Freelance writer and columnist for Missouri’s Webster-Kirkwood Times        Some of the funny quips in her newspaper column about the pressures parents face in trying to pay for their kids' college tuition.

A DEPRESSED JOURNALIST’S VERSION: “I just hit forty. I don’t want to look up at fifty and realize I measured out my fucking life with a coffee spoon.”        Kenneth Branagh, playing the unsuccessful journalist Lee Simon        In Woody Allen’s movie Celebrity (1998)

A DEPRESSED POET’S VERSION: “I have measured out my life in little pills—Zoloft, Restoril, Celexa, Xanax.”        Kim Addonizio        American poet and novelist        In her poem “The First Line is the Deepest,” included in her book Lucifer at the Starlite: Poems (2011)

THE SEX ADDICT’S VERSION: “What in the name of God is it all for? To fuck? Is that my comfort and my staff?...To cruise the bars, to measure out my life in ejaculations?”        Daniel Curzon        Pen name of the pioneering gay novelist and playwright Daniel R. Brown        In his novel Among the Carnivores (1978)

THE BRAVE NEW WORLD VARIATION: “The Trixie Telemetry company sells a program to help parents raise their babies by quantifying their little lives, and turning what they do into data...It’s a mere matter of time before we can substitute T.S. Eliot’s tragic modern man, living by ‘measuring out my life with coffee spoons’ with the new postmodern dolt: A man who measures out his life with data spoons.”        Laurie Fendrich         Professor of Fine Arts at Hofstra University (Hempstead, NY)         In an op-ed posted on The Chronicle of Higher Education website, November 20, 2009

THE OLD WORLD RELIGION VARIATION: “Catholicism’s once vivid otherworldliness had devolved into a sort of rote board game, in which preoccupation with involved scenarios of the life to come became an excuse to measure out one’s life in Hail Marys and First Fridays while ignoring real moral concerns.”        Rev. Richard McBrien         Controversial Catholic theologian at the University of Notre Dame        An observation by McBrien cited in the article, “Does Heaven Exist?,” in the June 24 2001 issue of Time magazine

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Further reading: about and by T.S. Eliot…