Good Reads

“You had me at hello.”  I cannot forget that line. Or “run Forrest run!”  I am really a captive to what I consider is good writing.  Instead of “you had me at hello” it could be said “you had me at that paragraph.”
I have been reading a couple of eulogies.  There are parts that are beautifully put.  The second in particular almost brought me to tears.  I have never read a book as slowly.  Sometimes my lingering is due to a lack of understanding while at other times it is because I consider what I read as beautiful.  This has been one of those times.
The first was by a well-known agnostic at the time.  He was burying his brother.  What I loved in what he said were things like “In every storm of life he was oak and rock, but in the sunshine he was vine and flower." "were everyone to whom he did some loving service to bring a blossom to his grave, he would sleep tonight beneath a wilderness of flowers." and "Speech cannot contain our love."
The second was by someone called James Blaine who was the Secretary of State to the assassinated President James Garfield.  He was speaking in the American House of Representatives.
“His countrymen were thrilled with instant, profound, and universal sympathy.  Masterful in his mortal weakness, he became the centre of a nations love, enshrined in the prayers of a world.  But all the love, and all the sympathy could not share with him his suffering.  He trod the winepress alone.  With unfaltering front he faced death.  With unfailing tenderness he took leave of life.  Above the demoniac hiss of the assassin’s bullet he heard the voice of God.  With simple resignation he bowed to the divine decree.”
He grew up by the ocean apparently, and in his waning state he wanted to return there.
 “with a wan, fevered face, tenderly lifted to the cooling breeze, he looked out wistfully upon the oceans changing wonders; on its far sails; on its restless waves, rolling shoreward to break and die beneath the noonday sun; on the red clouds of evening, arching low to the horizon; on the serene and shining pathway of the star.  Let us think that his dying eyes read a mystic meaning which only the rapt and parting soul may know.  Let us believe that in the silence of the receding world he heard the great waves breaking on a further shore and felt already upon his wasted brow the breath of the eternal morning.”
It seems sombre, but it matters not to me what the topic may be, if I like what is said I embrace it.
I have many favourite Lord of the Rings moments but there was one that was my favourite at the time and has remained so.  I do not necessarily agree with the sentiments except when she says “I have made my choice,” but I found its imagery and words beautifully presented.  The scene in the movie is called “Arwens Fate” and is spoken by Elron her dad.   He is speaking of Aragorn’s potential fate.  “…if all that you hope for comes true... you will still be parted…like night falling when winter comes without a star…until all the world is changed, and the long years of your life are utterly spent…”
Probably when I get to the next section of the book the mood will be lightened, but I am not there yet.