Week of Valentines: Truman Capote

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From Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Sometimes a paragraph of prose stands out as sheer poetry. The line breaks are mine.

neon heart

Our understanding of each other had
reached that sweet depth where two people
communicate
more often in silence than in words;
an affectionate quietness
replaces
the tensions,
the unrelaxed chatter and chasing about
that produces a friendship’s more showy
more, in the surface sense, dramatic moments.

Truman Capote
Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Ian, Your Breakfast blog is an amazing tribute.

I was 26 years old when I read this. Of course, it was in paragraph form in the middle of the book somewhere. I don’t know what page . . . but it stopped me cold as a definition of a lifelong friend. And so I present to you as the final Valentine in a Week of Valentines.

–ME “Liz” Strauss.

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Week of Valentines: Leigh Hunt

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Jenny Kissed Me

neon heart

Jenny kissed me when we met,
Jumping from the chair she sat in.
Time, you thief, who love to get
Sweets into your list, put that in.
Say I’m weary, say I’m sad;
Say that health and wealth have missed me;
Say I’m growing old, but add–
Jenny kissed me!

James Henry Leigh Hunt
(1784 - 1859)

Thanks Rat, for having Jenny where I could find her.

I find this poem wonderful. It makes me feel great every time I read it, hear it, speak it. That’s why I share it with you.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Week of Valentines: Emmett Fox

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Enough Love

neon heart

There is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer,
no disease that enough love will not heal,
no door that enough love will not bridge,
no wall that enough love will not throw down,
no sin that enough love will not redeem . . .

It makes no difference how deeply seated may be the trouble,
how hopeless the outlook, how muddled the tangle,
how great the mistake. A sufficient realization of love will dissolve it all.

If only you could love enough, you could be the happiest and
most powerful being in the world . . .

Thanks, Stormy Weather, this has been a favorite since college.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Week of Valentines: Mother Teresa and Dr. Kent M. Keith

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Do Good Anyway

This version, often called “Do Good” or “Do Good Anyway”, is found on the wall in the home for children that Mother Teresa established in Calcutta. The Original Version called “The Paradoxical Commandments,” was written by Dr. Kent M. Keith as part of a piece for student leaders.

neon heart

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

Mother Teresa as taken from
The Paradoxical Commandments
by Dr. Kent M. Keith

Thanks, WheresJim, for the real story.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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