Book Club Slacker

It was probably about two or three years ago that my book club decided to read The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, and let me tell you, this is one FAT book. 1462 pages to be exact. My King James version of the Holy Bible has 1590 pages, for comparison. Anyway. It is a great read, great story, very different from the movie, I recommend the condensed version to anyone (I'm pretty sure there's a condensed version). Back when I was supposed to read this, I got about a quarter of the way through before the book found its way to the bottom of my reading pile and was forgotten. I started it again last January off and on, and am about 900 pages into it. He's a crafty man, that Edmond Dantes.

My point in mentioning this book is that I've found one of my all time favorite quotes on pages 183-184. A little background- If you've seen the movie, you may recall the Priest who Dantes meets in prison. The priest is an incredibly intelligent man who educates Dantes as they work together to escape prison. In the book, his name is Abbe Faria. Here's the passage- a conversation between the two of them:

"'What are you thinking of?' asked the abbe smilingly...
...'I was reflecting, in the first place,' replied Dantes, 'upon the enormous degree of intelligence and ability you must have employed to reach the high perfection to which you have attained;-- if you thus surpass all mankind while but a prisoner, what would you not have accomplished free?'
'Possibly nothing at all;-- the overflow of my brain would probably, in a state of freedom, have evaporated in a thousand follies; it needs trouble and difficulty and danger to hollow out various mysterious and hidden mines of human intelligence. Pressure is required, you know, to ignite powder: captivity has collected into one single focus all the floating faculties of my mind; they have come into close contact in the narrow space in which they have been wedged, and you are well aware that from the collision of clouds electricity is produced-- from electricity comes the lightning, from whose flash we have light amid our greatest darkness.'"

I often used to wonder why it is that when life's going smoothly, no real stresses, only a couple things on the to-do list for the day, I have a hard time getting anything done. But when there are a million things to do, zero time to do them, and the weight of the world is on my shoulders, I turn into Superwoman and do all I need and then some. This quote offers the perfect explanation. Last year when we were building this house, following a tight budget, working like crazy to get out of debt, shuffling kids between babysitters, living in tight quarters, reffing 4 nights a week, making sure everything was okay with the banks, training for a marathon, making sure subcontractors were being treated fairly, juggling multiple church callings, basically when life was stressful, I accomplished so much every day. At the time I remember thinking, "Dang, when all this is over, I'm going to be able to do so much with all my free time!" Now that I'm there, I've "arrived", goals met, stresses alleviated, I've never felt lazier. Weird how that works, huh? I think I'll take on projects and creative type stuff to create a little stress, but I'll always remember this lesson: 'Pressure is required'. When trials come from now on, it'll be easier to be thankful for them if I can remember that there are some 'hidden mines of human intelligence' Heavenly Father's trying to bring to surface.
The end. (phew, I don't know how Dumas kept going for 1460 more pages, this ramble about did me in!)