What maketh the heart of a Christian heavy? The fact that he is a pilgrim, and longs for his country. ~ St. Augustine
I stumbled on this gem not long ago and realized it captures how I've always felt. Here Augustine refers to a profound sense of alienation, of being in the world but not of it, of inhabiting a place so removed from the ideal. Christianity strikes me as uniquely profound in this regard because it is concerned far less with getting along in this world than with getting right with the next (ideal) one. Otherwise stated, that which is falls far below that which should be. Some people lack ideals and, like pigs in slop, feel perfectly at home in the world. They live a life of sensation and measure good and evil solely by pleasure and pain. For those of us who have ideals and consider them more important than anything our senses convey, however, the world is a strange and hostile place. This can be somewhat of a curse, as Augustine observed. But it is also a blessing because our happiness resides within; it cannot be given or taken away by anyone else.
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