<<<If you tell me it's someone really legendary ... I'm gonna crawl in a hole.
I'm destroyed anyway. The Bucks lost to Michigan .... ah nevermind. It's too sad to talk about. Waaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! Tissue, please? Sniff, sniff, thanks.>>>
Not your everyday legendary figure, Thomas a Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury 1162-70, during the reign of Henry II, and was murdered for upholding the rights of the church against the king. During the most recent enthronement of the Archbishop of Canterbury, they re-enacted the pounding on the North door when the assassins arrived in the dead of night and forced their way in. The thundering knocks reverberating throughout the cathederal sent chills down my spine, not so much for the noise but for the sense of awe as 800 years fell away.
What's that word, tesseract?
At any rate, the setting of "the last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason" was Thomas a Becket's confrontation with himself when death was imminent. I suspect TSE reveals his belief in the ambiguity of human nature --- striving to do right we never quite escape our secondary motives. As William Shirer put it, "There's the reason and then the real reason."
Mark Lewin had it right.
Time to head out to see another Henry James story, this time "Washington Square." Saw "Wings of the Dove" last night. An exquisite film and a story that haunts days afterwards. Ah, yes, we are our own undoing. Again, the complexities of the human heart.
Dare I admit I've seen it twice? :))
Sorry about the Bucks. You'll have to live vicariously this time and celebrate with Linds in the Bruins' win over the Trojans.
Cheers!
pat
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