A Whole Committee of Selves

“We are trying to be several selves at once, without all our selves being organized by a single, mastering Life within us.  Each of us tends to be, not a single self, but a whole committee of selves.  There is the civic self, the parental self, the financial self, the religious self, the society self, the professional self, the literary self.  And each of our selves is in turn a rank individualist, not cooperative but shouting out his vote loudly for himself when the voting time comes. . . .  We are not integrated.  We are distraught.  We feel honestly the pull of many obligations and try to fulfill them all.  And we are unhappy, uneasy, strained, oppressed, and fearful we shall be shallow.  For over the margins of life comes a whisper, a faint call, a premonition of richer living which we know we are passing by.”

Thomas R. Kelly, A Testament of Devotion (New York, 1941), pages 114-115.
HT: Ray Ortlund, Jr.