It feels like every piece of literature we have read has not had much to do with my big blog question... or charity for that matter. I have been able to identify minor details in the works to fit with my question, but those details tend not to be huge themes that project the authors' purpose, but I still manage to connect it somehow. However, I'm having a difficult time with the last novel we just read, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, which displays the early life of a boy, whose name is Stephen Dedalus, on his journey to becoming an artist. His path is defined by a series of epiphanies, each guiding him to eventually isolating himself from the rest of the world: his family, his friends, his school, the Catholic Church (and religion in general), women, and just about everything else that doesn't involve his work as an artist. He doesn't take it upon himself to put others before him, in fact he does quite the opposite. Not that I am condemning him in any way, because his passion for being an artist is inspiring and lights a fire within me. But in relation to my blog... Stephen has little to offer. There is one thing I could say. That is the idea of each person on this Earth having an individual purpose, and there is an art in using our talents and God-given abilities to enhance that purpose, therefore serving others through fulfilling that purpose. Stephen writes, first and foremost (just as any true artist), to express himself and his emotions/passion, and then has the capability and wish of sharing it with the world. He uses the fire that words light in his soul to feed the flame of passion for others. This, to some extent (yes, it is a stretch), could be a form of charity: the active efforts of one to fulfill one's purpose, and blessing the lives of others through allowing them to be "glimmering and trembling, trembling and unfolding, a breaking light, an opening flower..."(Joyce, 166).
