TRJ - #4

UNDERSTANDING

"Think of what you are saying," Mr. Mompellion interrupted. His voice-right, loud, grave-cut off the Bradford's airy laughter. Colonel Bradford turned to him with a raised eyebrow, as if to censure rudeness. Mrs. Bradford tried to turn her titter to a cough. Mr.Mompellion continued, "If all who have the means run each time this disease appears, then the seeds of the Plague will go with them and be sown far and wide throughout the land until the clean places are infected and the contagion is magnified a thousandfold. If God saw fit to send this scourge, I believe it would be His will that one face it where one was, with courage and thus contain its evil."

"Oh?" said the colonel superciliously. "and if God sends a lion to rip your flesh, will you stand stead fastly then too? I think not. I think you will run from the danger, as any sensible man would." (Year of Wonders - p.62)
-----------------------------------------------------------
This piece of writing was very memorable to me and there were several understandings that I discovered by reading this part of the novel. First, I saw that the Colonel already had in mind that he would leave when the plague struck, after I read this piece of writing. It became clear to me why he didn't stay in the village when Mr. Mompellion asked everyone to do. Colonel Bradford cared more about the consequences of his family than the villagers. This piece of writing helped me, selfish as he seems to be, to notice that most of the people in the plague village would have fled if it were not for the persuasion of Mr. Mompellion and Mr. Stanley, who was the previous rector.

I also understood that life is full of tough choices to make. Noticing that both Mr. Mompellion and Colonel Bradford words were true, I thought the rest of the villagers must have had a hard time convincing themselves to remain in the village so other people wouldn't be affected by the diesease. If I was wearing in one of the villager's shoes, I percieved the fact that I couldn't come to a final decision. The mind to escape and the mind to stay tugged with equal force at my decision, like tug-a-war with with the same amount of people with the same amount of strentgh on both sides. I saw that both the Colonel and Mr. Mompellion made sense in what they said. My head ached just to continue thinking about it. This is why I come back to the fact that I realized life is full of tough choices to make.

In the future, the understandings that I took out of the book will help me make decisions based on the word of God as Mr. Mompellion says so. Instead of evolving my decision around "what can I benefit from this?" I should base my decision around "how can God see satisfaction in my selection?". As I talked about it in the previous paragraph, the understandings should shape our society as considering other people, not only myself. Also, to not be selfish, for you will surely be punished from God.