Me too

"I am astonished, disappointed, pleased with myself. I am distressed, depressed, rapturous. I am all these things at once, and cannot add up the sum. I am incapable of determining ultimate worth or worthlessness; I have no judgment about myself and my life. There is nothing I am quite sure about. I have no definite convictions - not about anything, really. I know only that I was born and exist, and it seems to me that I have been carried along. I exist on the foundation of something I do not know."

— C.G. Jung, near the end of his life, from his book published with associate Aniela Jaffé: "Memories, Dreams, Reflections," (New York: Random House), 1965

A friend just emailed this thought-provoking quote. I agree with Jung, except, well, I'm not depressed, and I'm quite, quite sure of my love for my children, and I do have some definite convictions - about our Prime Minister being a sleazebag and our Mayor an idiot, for example. But now I'm remembering that line from Yeats's "The Second Coming":

"The best lack all conviction, while the worst/are filled with passionate intensity."

Hmmm. Just Googled the poem and learned that it paraphrases these wise lines from Shelley's "Prometheus Unbound," which Yeats loved:

"The good want power, but to weep barren tears.

The powerful goodness want: worse need for them.

The wise want love, and those who love want wisdom;

And all best things are thus confused to ill."

The wise want love, and those who love want wisdom. And all the best things are thus confused to ill. Only 8.30 a.m., and already an English lesson, a life lesson. How I love the Internet, by B. Kaplan.