blog 11

[Spencer]

My favorite quote from this reading was “The strongest guard is placed at the gateway to nothing. Maybe because the condition of emptiness is too shameful to be divulged.” This quote really stood out to me as one of the greatest quotes of the entire book and even of most of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s writing. The quote is explaining how we are all afraid of being vulnerable. We put gates, bridges, guards, in order to protect ourselves. The funny thing is that most of the guards that we put out are pointless because they really only lead to nothing at all. Us putting out guards cause us to be empty inside because we do not get to show our true selves. God made us to live and be ourselves, not a hidden version of it. How are we ever going to live out what he has in store for us when we will never come out of the shadows. We will be left empty, shameful, and alone. A movie that would relate to this would probably be Michael Oher from the “Blind Side”. Michael was a quiet and shy kid who kept a barrier so that people could not hurt him. It was not until the family adopted Michael and began to love him that he began to change. He became a whole new man and was no longer placing a gate in front of his heart.