On the topic of reading . . .

I've invested the last 5 months studying for my preliminary exams. I have them scheduled for the middle of April - two more months to go. It hasn't been too bad; some weeks are more difficult than others. Happily, I am going to finish my second list this week (just as soon as I wrap my mind around the Gadamer/Habermas hermeneutical debate), which means that all I have left is poetry and literature, a piece of cake compared to what I've been reading lately.

Last week, I had a doozey, Action by Maurice Blondel. It was interesting but difficult. You know, too much of a good thing. By the third day, I was beginning to wonder why I was in grad school in the first place. So, in order to prove that this text is good for more than making me insecure, I've decided to add a Blondel quote to the blog on the topic of love.

"love proceeds from the individual will, though it surpasses the individual, that it requires a sometimes heroic generosity and abnegation, but that it is not thereby contrary to the intention of the one sacrificing himself to it, that its reason and its justification is an end higher and further removed than the apparent aim of the first desire, without however making of the attraction which bedecks it a deceiving ruse and a cruel trick of nature"

You can see why I was frustrated by this text. Difficulty aside, I like this quote because it makes the point that love is bigger than any one individual. In addition, its ends and purposes are higher and better than our own. Kind of reassuring, I think.

So there you go. Maurice Blondel's thoughts on love for you to ponder on this last night before the month of February, the month where we pause to celebrate our love (and to boost Hallmark and FTD's profits).