The Nightingale and the Rose

Recently, philosopher and activist Dr. Cornel West came to McDaniel and delivered an amazing talk which covered a variety of topics. One part of his talk that particularly touched me and, I think, a lot of other students here at McDaniel who participate in the music program, was a comparison that he made between music and acts of giving. In a good musical performance, he said, a person pours their entire self into their performance so that those listening can be filled with whatever emotion they hear in the music. Likewise, the greatest acts of charity are those that involve giving our whole selves to help others or further a cause.

Oscar Wilde, I think, understood this idea quite well, as he expresses it beautifully in his story "The Nightingale and the Rose." In an especially powerful scene, the Nightingale pierces her heart on a thorn, singing all the while the most beautiful song that has ever been heard, so that a young student can have a red rose to give to the woman he loves. In the end, the woman rejects the student and he renounces love in favor of cold logic, but the Nightingale's whole-bodied sacrifice for another stands as an inherently good and beautiful thing. 

Related imageThe message conveyed by West and Wilde is, I think, one which has not and never will decay in its importance. Especially here in the United States, we seem to give plenty of lip service to kind of outwardly quiet, yet inwardly powerful self-sacrifice of the Nightingale, but this is also displaced to an extent by an additional, materialistic definition of success. In our elections, we often see business men running for office, claiming that they are perfect candidates because of the managerial skills which allowed them to make so much money. These skills may well be practically useful, but can it really be said that they should be sought over (or even generally coincide with) the kind of willingness for self sacrifice that has traditionally been associated with the Christian definition of "service?" Certainly it is no crime to make money, but should we really be using it as a factor when judging somebody's character or fitness for public office? Our children's books seem to say "no," but our actions (we are, after all, only human) too often say otherwise. 

In the fairy tales of Oscar Wilde, the world is a dark and cruel place in which the rich get richer, the poor poorer, and the good die underappreciated. The beauty of their acts, however, viewable only by us readers, still gives us hope that the importance of self-sacrifice will one day be fully recognized and that we will ourselves might be able to find projects into which we are able to pour our whole selves. 


Picture Credits:
https://sites.google.com/site/ssuirp4b1/the-nightingale-and-the-rose

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