Pilgrimage

"A pilgrimage is a journey taken in light of a story" - Paul Elie, The Life You Save May Be Your Own

Self

"The modern self is essentially empty–a 'nought.' The self goes forth in the world in order to fill itself, but swamps the world with its search for selfhood instead. As a result, the self assigns the highest value to the things it cannot swamp with selfhood, things that fill the self and remain undiminished–that have themselves left over. We prize an antique, for example, not becuase it is sturdy or well-made but 'because it is an antique and as such is saturated with another time and another place and is therefore resistant to absorbtion by the self.' Any old thing can make us feel full; but the things of the world that can be swamped by our selves and remain standing, alone, integral, lasting–these are the things worth marveling at, and the self seeks to loose itself in them."

Paul Elie, elaborating on Walker Percy's idea of the modern self, in The Life Save May Be Your Own

Stories

"Like it or not, we come to life in the middle of stories that are not our own."

- Paul Elie, The Life You Save May Be Your Own