I’m reading The Red and the Black, which most of my friends in high school read back then in French. I had scheduling difficulty, so I had independent study. I have my mom’s hand-me-down copy from what I presume was a course in the European novel based on other books I have permanently borrowed from her, unless she was allowed to read in English while getting her French minor. Julien Sorel is all about ambition. He’s also annoying. I don’t know how things will turn out for him, but I almost don’t care. Ambition has either warped his character or it is his character and neither option seems good.
The lectionary for today was another one of those readings about the disciples missing the point. They’re always on about rank, about who’s the greatest, who gets to sit where. Jesus tells them to give it a rest (Janet’s vernacular paraphrase…).
Not much positive there. But. Isn’t the drive to do well and to do good a kind of ambition?
Maybe it’s wanting a hierarchy that’s the problem, not ambition, not excellence. More to think about.
