throwing stones

continuing with the reading list.  i am starting to realize that several of our selected books are centered on slavery and/or the civil rights movement.  i have found them to be interesting reads.  included in this list is uncle tom's cabin by harriet beecher stowe.

"if it were your harry, mother, or your willie, that were going to be torn from you by a brutal trader, to-morrow morning,--if you had seen the man, and heard that the papers were signed and delivered, and you had only from twelve o'clock till morning to make good your escape,--how fast could you walk?  how many miles could you make in those few brief hours, with the darling at your bosom,--the little sleepy head on your shoulder,--the small, soft arms trustingly holding on to your neck?"  {uncles tom's cabin, harriet beecher stowe}

"sublime is the dominion of the mind over the body, that, for a time, can make flesh and nerve impregnable, and string the sinews like steel, so that the weak becomes so mighty."  {uncles tom's cabin, harriet beecher stowe}

"and for a few moments they all wept in company.  and in those tears they all shed together, the high and the lowly, melted away all the heart-burnings and anger of the oppressed.  o, ye who visit the distressed, do ye know that everything your money can buy, given with a cold, averted face, is not worth one honest tear shed in real sympathy?"  {uncles tom's cabin, harriet beecher stowe}

"of course, in a novel, people's hearts break, and they die, and that is the end of it; and in a story this is very convenient.  but in real life we do not die when all that makes life bright dies to us.  there is a most busy and important round of eating, drinking, dressing, walking, visiting, buying, selling, talking, reading, and all that makes up what is commonly called living, yet to be gone through."  {uncles tom's cabin, harriet beecher stowe}

"'i could sooner show twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow my own showing.'" {uncles tom's cabin, harriet beecher stowe}

"farewell, beloved child!  the bright, eternal doors have closed after thee; we shall see they sweet face no more.  o, woe for them who watched thy entrance into heaven, when they shall wake and find only the cold gray sky of daily life, and thou gone forever."  {uncles tom's cabin, harriet beecher stowe}

read this quote and tell me you do not feel convicted...

"if i answer that question, i know you'll be at me with half a dozen others, each one harder than the last; and i'm not going to define my position.  i am one of the sort that lives by throwing stones at other people's glass houses, but i never mean to put up one for them to stone."  {uncles tom's cabin, harriet beecher stowe}