Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion of Walker Percy

[Wade Riddick <wriddick AT usa.net>]

"Do what you want" => fulfill your desire (the Mallification of the
American South; the reduction of worshippers to consumers - or, perhaps,
their transformation into worshippers of Mammon)

>"And he came to himself". THUS: "Do what you are".

=> What you are is not what you want.  What you want distracts you from
what you are.

This is Kierkegaard's rotation and repetition at work.

We are all prodigal, in this sense, because we don't know what loss is.  We
don't even understand what the gift is.  I'm thinking here of the lessons
of Epictetus on loss and jealousy in the Prodigal Son.  Jealousy seems a
rather useless emotion in a world destined for nothing but loss.

Can we not quote the entirety of other comments?  It rather rapidly fills
up our inboxes.