There is a quote from Thomas Wolfe’s “You Can Never Go Home Again” that I never tire of.  It surprises me that, while I find hope in this passage, most others seem to see despair.  Perhaps there is something wrong with me or maybe them.  I think this text speaks of the power of human resolve and dignity.  Read it for yourself and see what you find.

There came to him an image of man’s whole life upon earth.  It seemed to him that all man’s life was like a tiny spurt of flame that blazed out briefly in an inimitable and terrifying darkness, and that all man’s grandeur, tragic dignity, his heroic glory, came from the brevity and smallness of this flame.  He knew that his life was little and would be extinguished, and that only darkness was immense and everlasting.  And he knew that he would die with defiance on his lips, and that the shout of his denial would ring with the last pulsing of his heart in to the maw of all engulfing night.  -Thomas Wolfe