Emphasis Preaching Journal
Reaching
Commentary
In Hendrik Ibsen’s famous drama Peer Gynt, the hero of the story tries to find the meaning of his life by traveling and interviewing others. At one point he visits an asylum where “lunatics” are kept. Their craziness, thinks Peer Gynt, must arise from the condition that they are, as he puts it, “outside themselves.”
Not so, says the director of the asylum.
Outside themselves? Oh no, you’re wrong.
It’s here that men are most themselves—
Themselves and nothing but themselves—
Sailing with outspread sails of self.
Not so, says the director of the asylum.
Outside themselves? Oh no, you’re wrong.
It’s here that men are most themselves—
Themselves and nothing but themselves—
Sailing with outspread sails of self.
