| INTERESTING QUOTES ON VANITY
-From Northern Exposure
Sometimes when you look back on a situation, you realize it wasn't all you thought it was. A beautiful girl walked into your life. You fell in love. Or did you? Maybe it was only a childish infatuation, or maybe just a brief moment of vanity.
--Henry Bromel, Northern Exposure, The Big Kiss, 1991
You've been listening to the adagio from Beethoven's 7th Symphony. I think Ludwig pretty much summed up death in this one. You know, he had lost just about all his hearing when he wrote it, and I've often wondered if that didn't help him tune into the final silence of the great beyond.
--Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, Northern Exposure, All is Vanity, 1991
A man should not leave this earth with unfinished business. He should live each day as if it was a pre-flight check. He should ask each morning, am I prepared to lift-off?
--Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, Northern Exposure, All is Vanity, 1991
The fact that we don't know this man, isn't important really. Cause his experience is our experience, and his fate is our fate. Vani tass, vani tatum, et omni i vani tass, says the preacher. All is vanity I think that's a pretty good epitaph for all of us. When we're stripped of all our worldly possessions and all our fame, family, friends, we all face death alone. But it's that solitude in death that's our common bond in life.
I know it's ironic, but that's just the way things are. Vani tass, vani tatum, et omni i vani tass. Only when we understand all is vanity, only then, it isn't.
--Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, Northern Exposure, All is Vanity, 1991 |
VANITY OF VANITIES
Eccles. 12:8 (NRSV)
Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher; all is vanity.
Eccles. 12:1-14 (Message Bible)
Honor and enjoy your Creator while you're still young,
Before the years take their toll and your vigor wanes,
Before your vision dims and the world blurs
And the winter years keep you close to the fire.
In old age, your body no longer serves you so well.
Muscles slacken, grip weakens, joints stiffen.
The shades are pulled down on the world.
You can't come and go at will. Things grind to a halt.
The hum of the household fades away.
You are wakened now by bird-song.
Hikes to the mountains are a thing of the past.
Even a stroll down the road has its terrors.
Your hair turns apple-blossom white,
Adorning a fragile and impotent matchstick body.
Yes, you're well on your way to eternal rest,
While your friends make plans for your funeral.
Life, lovely while it lasts, is soon over.
Life as we know it, precious and beautiful, ends.
The body is put back in the same ground it came from.
The spirit returns to God, who first breathed it.
It's all smoke, nothing but smoke.
The Quester says that everything's smoke.
Besides being wise himself, the Quester also taught others knowledge. He weighed, examined, and arranged many proverbs. The Quester did his best to find the right words and write the plain truth.
The words of the wise prod us to live well.
They're like nails hammered home, holding life together.
They are given by God, the one Shepherd.
But regarding anything beyond this, dear friend, go easy. There's no end to the publishing of books, and constant study wears you out so you're no good for anything else. The last and final word is this:
Fear God.
Do what he tells you.
And that's it. Eventually God will bring everything that we do out into the open and judge it according to its hidden intent, whether it's good or evil.
A Brief study on the meaning of Vanity in the Bible
The words “vain,” “vanity,” “vanities” are frequent in the Bible. Their idea is almost exclusively that of “evanescence,” “emptiness,” including “idolatry” and “wickedness” as being not only evil but vain and empty things. They also signify falseness.
The chief word translated “vanity” in the Hebrew Scriptures is hebhel, a “breath of air, or of the mouth,” often applied to idolatry (Dt 32:21; 1 Ki 16:13; Ps 31:6; Jer 8:19, etc.); to one’s days and to one's self (Job 7:16; Ps 39:5, 11, etc.); to a person’s thoughts (Ps 94:11); to wealth and treasures (Prov 13:11; 21:6); to everything, in Ecclesiastes, where the word occurs frequently in
various applications: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity” (Eccl 1:2; 12:8).
“Vanity” does not often occur in the New Testament; but rather VAIN or VAINGLORY does.
“The creation was subjected to vanity,” (e.g. frailty, transitoriness, emptiness, folly) (Eph 4:17; 2 Pet 2:18). |
