“If you treated anyone else as you have treated yourself during the past six hours, you would be guilty of assault. This will cease. From this moment on, you will show your body the respect it deserves as God’s creation. You will allow your arms to heal and then you will embark on a sensible and moderate course of physical therapy. You will eat regularly. You will rest properly. You will care for your own body as you would for that of a friend to whom you are indebted. …During these months and for all time, you will cease to arrogate to yourself responsibility that lies elsewhere. Is that clear?”
– Vincenzo Giuliani in The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell
Your fleshhouse and bones-chamber
is the hall of your soul.
Vessel of clay it may be,
but by God
its contents are precious:
your sinew and skeleton garment
is your spirit’s place.
Do not destroy the potter’s work.
Stop fretting on all those slender jars
and their busy shining use;
be emptied, be filled,
emptied, filled,
to glorious ends.
Fill your heart’s coffer
and mindhoard
as filling the home
for your friend
and your lord.