March 1, 2013 Originally posted on Our Values This week, columnist Terry Gallagher is writing the OurValues series … These days, you can “unfriend” someone with a click. So, what does that mean for real friendship? Real friendship means more than just enjoying each other’s company, laughing at the same jokes, or being able to borrow
someone’s lawn mower. Many of the people we call friends on Facebook are really something else: co-workers, associates, colleagues, drinking buddies, whatever. But there are harder parts to friendship. Like the honesty required to tell a friend he’s going the wrong way. And the confidence and trust that your friend won’t unfriend you just because you point out he’s going the wrong way. And the loyalty to remain friends even if he insists on going that way anyway. Maybe the hardest part is that friends stick together through the worst of times. Someone who really needed friends like that was George McGovern, the former senator and presidential candidate who died last year. Poor George took such a thumping in the 1972 election, losing 49 states, that his name became a synonym for political futility. In his very gracious concession speech, McGovern talked about the staff and volunteers who supported him from the earliest primaries until the very end of that pitiful campaign. In honor of them, he quoted these lines from the poet W.B. Yeats. Think where man’s glory most begins and ends, “And that’s the way I feel tonight,” McGovern said on what must have been one of the darkest days of his life up to that point. How about you? Do you have friends like that? How do you describe a true friendship? Care to see McGovern’s speech? Click the video screen below. I. II. III. IV. V. VI. W.B. Yeats is widely considered to be one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. In literary and academic circles his reputation precedes him so I’ll keep the introductory formalities brief. Although he won many awards throughout his long and illustrious career, his most prestigious
recognition came in 1923 when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in the Literature. He was the first Irishman to be honored. The committee praised his work as “inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation.” When I think of this poem, I’m reminded of an old friend, who recently sent me the final lines of this poem in a message— Think where man’s glory most begins and ends,And say my glory was I had such friends. As Yeats revisits old friends and old memories, he is “heart-smitten with emotion.” And, although I can’t say with certainty what inspired the sentimental message from my, it struck me with a wave of nostalgia and coincidental gratitude—smitten. I cannot divine Yeats intentions in writing these final lines, but I can relate them to personal experience—it can be rewarding to revisit in memories old friends from our own lives and in visiting, be thankful. posted by Nolan Doyle Where man's glory begins and ends?In honor of them, he quoted these lines from the poet W.B. Yeats. Think where man's glory most begins and ends, And say my glory was I had such friends. “And that's the way I feel tonight,” McGovern said on what must have been one of the darkest days of his life up to that point.
Who said being Irish he had an abiding sense of tragedy which sustained him through temporary periods of joy?'Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy. ' Poet WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS (1865-1939) was born in Sandymount, County Dublin.
When was Yeats awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature?14 November 1923 William Butler Yeats Wins Nobel Peace Prize On 14 November 1923 Irish poet and senator, William Butler Yeats created history when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the first Irish citizen to achieve such an accolade.
Who said there are no strangers here only friends?Dear Quote Investigator: The Nobel Prize winning Irish poet William Butler Yeats often receives credit for the following sentiment: There are no strangers here; only friends you haven't yet met.
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