Embrace vs. Escape

I'm reading through Thomas Wolfe's second novel "Of Time and the River."  Like the first book, it's not an easy read, but it's nice to see Wolfe's progression as a writer and the differences in his style as he matured.  Reading his "Look Homeward Angel" was a bucket list goal of mine, and I'm proud to say I got through it over many months.  

In this second book, Wolfe's semi-autobiographical character Eugene Gant enters Harvard University. In describing the students in one of his playwriting class, he makes an interesting statement:

"The impulse of the people in the class was not to embrace life and devour it, but rather to escape from it."

This thought echoed a Biblical passage I had read earlier this morning, in Ecclessiates Chapter 11. The whole chapter is a fantastic read, but I especially like the dichotomy in vs. 8 

 "However many years anyone may live,  let them enjoy them all. But let them remember the times of darkness, for there will be many.  Everything to come is meaningless" (NIV)

Wolfe's implication was that writing, to others around him, was escapism.  To him, it was to flesh out all of the emotions that came with life, good and bad, dark and light, and fully paint out the spectrum of the human experience.  In some ways, I see the same thought in the Bible passage too.  A commentator I read earlier (Holman Old Testament Commentary) mentioned that the teacher in Ecclessiastes was reminding his students that life in itself has good and bad.  We should enjoy the good, but also learn the lessons that the dark times teach us, not losing sight of the fact that death is an inevitable conlusion for all of us, save if Jesus returns first.  It's so hard some days to really enjoy life and the small happy moments of living in the now; to not seek "escapism" by whatever vice that tempts you, which in itself invites more dark times.  But my friends, we must.  Neither ignore or over-emphasize the dark times in your life.  They are part of the journey.  They are real.  They are not fun.  But in the grand scheme of things, in God's plan, there is a purpose for these things under heaven, which Ecclessiastes Chapter 3 (the source of the famous Byrds song) reminds us of: