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goodness
February 2009 
The Time of Your Life
Posted on Feb 9th, 2009
by 
Karen
Karen
In the time of your life, live -- so that in good time, there shall be no ugliness of death for yourself or for any life your life touches.
Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding-place and let it be free and unashamed.
Place in matter and in flesh the least of the values, for these are things that hold death and must pass away. Discover in all things that which shines and is beyond corruption.
Encourage virtue in whatever heart it may have been driven into secrecy and sorrow by the shame and terror of the world.
Ignore the obvious, for it is unworthy of the clear eye and the kindly heart.
Be the inferior of no man, nor of any man be the superior. Remember that every man is a variation of yourself. No man's guilt is yours nor is any man's innocence a thing apart.
Despise evil and ungodliness, but not men of ungodliness or evil. These, understand.
Have no shame in being kindly and gentle, but if the time comes in the time of your life to kill, kill and have no regret.
In the time of your life, live -- so that in that wonderous time, you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile at the infinite delight and mystery of it.
-- William Saroyan, preface to The Time of Your Life.
Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding-place and let it be free and unashamed.
Place in matter and in flesh the least of the values, for these are things that hold death and must pass away. Discover in all things that which shines and is beyond corruption.
Encourage virtue in whatever heart it may have been driven into secrecy and sorrow by the shame and terror of the world.
Ignore the obvious, for it is unworthy of the clear eye and the kindly heart.
Be the inferior of no man, nor of any man be the superior. Remember that every man is a variation of yourself. No man's guilt is yours nor is any man's innocence a thing apart.
Despise evil and ungodliness, but not men of ungodliness or evil. These, understand.
Have no shame in being kindly and gentle, but if the time comes in the time of your life to kill, kill and have no regret.
In the time of your life, live -- so that in that wonderous time, you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile at the infinite delight and mystery of it.
-- William Saroyan, preface to The Time of Your Life.
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I really enjoyed reading Saroyan but haven’t thought of him for a long time. Thank you for this! Good to “see” you!