The Bread of Life

Last Friday I was hungry and thirsty. I was opening a bag of very nondescript white bread and then came the words from Flannery O'Connor's The Violent Bear It Away: "I ain't hungry for the bread of life." This, of course, brought up other memories from the novel, including the last scene in which Tarwater has a vision of the feeding of the 5,000 and receives the call to "warn the children of God of the terrible speed of mercy." Having remembered the text, I am left to decide what, if anything, to do with O'Connor's story.

Flannery O'Connor says “A story isn’t any good unless it successfully resists paraphrase, unless it hangs on and expands in the mind.” Evidentally, her story is still expanding in my mind, like the way the universe is expanding--over great time and great distances. It has been about four years since I read The Violent Bear It Away.

It is a gift to have a piece of meaningful text brought to one's rememberance. I doubt it has so much to do with the power of one's mind as the power of the text.

Now, to do something about the bread of life.