Our Town – Great Writing
This is a quote from my favorite play ever, “Our Town, by Thornton Wilder
“We all know that something is eternal. And it ain’t houses and it ain’t names, and it ain’t earth, and it ain’t even the stars . . . everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you’d be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There’s something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being.”
I like this particular quote so much because it talks about what’s really important, without saying what that one thing is so explicitly. The things we value and teach our kids and they teach their kids and so on, what each individual thinks and believes is what lives on far after us. Not our houses, our buildings, but the education we build and teach our children, that what continues – that is eternal.
4 responses so far
I like this quote and I agree that though we all are here temporarily, it is the teachings that we pass on that are eternal. We have all learned from our parents wisdom and common sense that has been passed down from our ancestors so it is comforting to know that while we may not be remembered in a hundred years, our knowledge that we pass on will be.
I liked the quote too, but I wasn’t sure what the quote was referring to until you said it. In a way, some names are eternal because they are recorded and a lot of people are taught about them because of their significance in history. There could be other options, and I was thinking about hope as an answer. Hope is easily lost, but it is in every one of us in some form at some time, and I think it is eternal as long as humanity exists. This may be getting away from the main point about teaching, which is relevant and true, but it’s interesting to think of other related things.
I’m definitely going to go buy this play now. I like how that “something” is intentionally left ambiguous, but that Wilder writes this passage in a way that we just know what he’s talking about. I guess he could be talking about humanity in general being eternal, but right now all I want to do is read this play and find out more. It’s captivating in that mysteriously beautiful structure that just breathes good writing.
Wow. Its a feeling, i think. When you realize that the world is so huge and you are so tiny and can you really make a difference and whats it all about, anyways. And it hits every once in awhile, and you just look around and wonder how everyone is going around doing those same old things and dont they get it? And then it unhits, and you go doing the same old things and you wonder why everyone else is so introspective.
Well, maybe its just me.