Les Miserables is my favorite book outside the scriptures. I wish I could read French so that I could read it as it was originally written. Alas for my own deficiencies... Maybe someday...
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the book, it is the story of several characters whose lives touch and are bound to the life Jean Valjean. Jean Valjean is a poor man who is convicted for a crime and ends up serving many years due to that crime and also for attempted escape. As a convict, he is required to show his yellow passport at each city he enters, letting everyone know that he is a convict. He is able, through some pretty dramatic events, to hide the fact that he is a convict in the city of Montreuil sur Mer. In that city he is further able to become quite rich, using industry to bless the entire region. He eventually is elected mayor. Things look pretty good for him.
But one day he hears that a man who looks like him will be tried in a distant town for crimes that he, Valjean, committed. If this man were to go to prison in Valjean's place, no one would ever look for him again, assuming that it was he in prison. But Valjean, having become converted by the charitable act of a kind bishop, cannot in good conscience allow this man to go in his place. After much deliberation and debate, and after getting through much trial and difficulty, he is admitted to the chambers where the trial is being conducted. He honorably and nobly tells the truth and goes back to prison. His body is in chains, but his soul is free, unfettered from the stain of a guilty conscience.
The musical version of the story captures this internal struggle in the song Who Am I...
I particularly like the rhetorical questioning and introspection contained in the lines - How can I ever face my fellowmen, how can I even face myself again?
We are often faced with the choice to be honest and forthright or dishonest. It is damaging to one's ability to live with one's self to continue on in dishonesty, particularly when one is lying to one's self. I hope I can be honest with myself if/when I am ever faced with similar opportunities as was Jean Valjean.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the book, it is the story of several characters whose lives touch and are bound to the life Jean Valjean. Jean Valjean is a poor man who is convicted for a crime and ends up serving many years due to that crime and also for attempted escape. As a convict, he is required to show his yellow passport at each city he enters, letting everyone know that he is a convict. He is able, through some pretty dramatic events, to hide the fact that he is a convict in the city of Montreuil sur Mer. In that city he is further able to become quite rich, using industry to bless the entire region. He eventually is elected mayor. Things look pretty good for him.
But one day he hears that a man who looks like him will be tried in a distant town for crimes that he, Valjean, committed. If this man were to go to prison in Valjean's place, no one would ever look for him again, assuming that it was he in prison. But Valjean, having become converted by the charitable act of a kind bishop, cannot in good conscience allow this man to go in his place. After much deliberation and debate, and after getting through much trial and difficulty, he is admitted to the chambers where the trial is being conducted. He honorably and nobly tells the truth and goes back to prison. His body is in chains, but his soul is free, unfettered from the stain of a guilty conscience.
The musical version of the story captures this internal struggle in the song Who Am I...
I particularly like the rhetorical questioning and introspection contained in the lines - How can I ever face my fellowmen, how can I even face myself again?
We are often faced with the choice to be honest and forthright or dishonest. It is damaging to one's ability to live with one's self to continue on in dishonesty, particularly when one is lying to one's self. I hope I can be honest with myself if/when I am ever faced with similar opportunities as was Jean Valjean.
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