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Anonymous
05/01/19(Wed)11:33
No. 21192
[Edit ]
While reading about the plot of the novel Jayber Crow in an article the eponymous character's life to that of a priest, I came across a passage that I thought was imminently relevant to us as well:
But Jayber can also be compared to a priest when he embraces celibacy out of love for Mattie Chatham, the love he never possesses. He even makes a vow, which he is inspired to do after he was on a date with his next-town-over girlfriend [...]. During that date he sees Troy, Mattie’s husband, with another woman. As Troy catches Jayber’s eye he gives a sign of comradery, almost seeming to brag that he’s with another woman in a freedom like Jayber’s. Jayber knew Mattie to be one of the purest signs of beauty and goodness in the world, so Troy’s infidelity, his assault on the truth of Mattie, repulses him so much that he flees the party by climbing out of the bathroom window, sells his car, and roots himself completely in his own town and in the place of his work. He never parties in the next town again. During this conversion – literally on the drunken walk home – he makes a solemn vow, which he keeps for life, of being “faithful” to Mattie to, in a way, set right the imbalance of unfaithfulness that Troy’s cheating creates. He’s a bachelor for life, but he has given up the false freedom that comes with that and gives himself totally to a love he will likely never enjoy, in an earthly way, in this life.