Honest living

The three reading assignments for today, John Milton’s, “When I consider how my light is spent”, William Shakespeare’s, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”, and Elizabeth Gilbert’s, “One Word”, all derive from the presence of honesty within a person.
In “When I consider how my light is spent,” John Milton describes the life he lives while being blind and is completely open and honest to the readers. He tells of the relationship that he has between himself and God, but first describes his life while being physically disabled. He is honest with himself and to the readers that his disability has proposed much turmoil in his life and that faith is what has kept him going and has not allowed this disadvantage to take over his life. Through his faith he determines that he will serve God no matter what and that his faith has given him to courage to live his life to the fullest and hope for salvation through serving God to his best capability.
In “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun,” William Shakespeare describes his mistress in great detail, although he takes a different approach than most would have. He compares his mistress to nature and things around him, such as saying “my mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun.” It appears that Shakespeare is putting his mistress down, for he is comparing her to these wonderful things but then saying that she is actually not equivalent to any of them. He does this because he is being honest with himself and his mistress, it may appear he is being negative, but in actuality he is showing that he truly loves this woman and is being honest in describing this true woman he loves.
In “One Word” Elizabeth Gilbert travels to Rome and is trying to find how to describe the cities and its inhabitants into one word. While she is doing this she is also trying to find herself at the same time. She comes to learn that the word for Rome is “sex”, which explains why Rome is so beautiful and elegant. But then determines that Rome’s word is not the word that describes herself at this moment in time. She remembers how at one point in her life how the word “family” described the town in which she and her husband lived, but also was not the word for her at that time because she felt that she did not fit in. She is being completely honest with herself and is trying to find the one word that can describe her and her life.
This notion of honesty can been seen at Loyola because it is taught that students and individuals need to be honest with themselves to find who they truly are. These three readings show three different forms of which honesty can be found, honesty in faith, love, and oneself/community. For someone to find himself or herself they need to be honest in everything that is done otherwise, the true identity of an individual or community will never be found.