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“To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, to throw a perfume on the violet, to smooth the ice, or add another hue unto the rainbow, or with taper-light to seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, is wasteful and ridiculous excess.”
When is carnage necessary? When does a tragedy make sense?
- Every time a TV or radio newscaster — or, all too often, a spokesman for law enforcement or first responders — says “this senseless tragedy,” it implies that some tragedies occur logically, that some thefts of precious life were necessary.
- Melodrama adds to the numbing of America. Mark Twain had little use for excess adjectives, and his wisdom is all the more valid today.
- Murder.
- Rape.
- Abduction.
- Abuse.
- Of course, senseless.
- Of course, unnecessary.
- Of course, (choose your hackneyed adjective).
- But look at those words. Hear them in your head. Feel the chill, the anger, the sadness. They need no modifying.
- The more we sugar- or mud-coat these terms that pierce our hearts, the more we blunt their power to move us.
- If we do not move, we do not act. Instead, we think and we pray.
Hyperbolic
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