Previous: Chapter 42: The Life Force
In his job interview with Henry Cameron, Roark said: "I love this earth. That's all I love." Think of Roark's Stoddard Temple: slung low over the ground, like the outstretched arms of a great benediction and a silent acceptance of the earth and of all the things on this earth that cannot be changed.
Roark accepted and loved the fact that existence exists. What he accepted and loved above all was the wonderful fact of his own existence. He was simply and deeply glad to be alive.
When I love existence in this way, and especially when I love my own existence, I gain a new fire, a sense that my life is important, a certainty that my happiness is sacred, a dedication to realizing the best of my spirit, a loyalty to my highest potential. I work to live up to the radiant picture of what is possible to me. I accept as the first law of my life an inner demand to seek the best of myself. I come to know that to be happy is my first duty to myself. I seek out the extra quality that makes dreams so vivid, and I endeavor to make that quality real in my waking hours.
When I love and accept this earth, I find that my daily routine can have honesty and dignity, that the routine necessities of life can be wrapped in splendor. And why not? Yes, the world can be ugly and small, but life can also be beautiful. It is supremely good to be alive on this life-giving earth and to feel every day the fresh wonder of an untouched world.
This magnificent appreciation for life is a source of the highest joy possible to human hearts. For what greater joy could there be but to focus on the most important things in my life?
Next: Chapter 44: The Light Within