Selfishness [rev] Poem by Margaret Alice Second

The lesson I take from La Symphonie Pastorale is
probably different from what André Gide intended -
the selfishness of a protagonist bringing a stranger
into his 5-children house, expecting his wife to cope
while lost to his own joy and pleasure in teaching a
lost child to read, all at a cost of time spent with his

Own family - he acted just like my granddad, who
brought strangers home expecting Grandma Alice
to cope, provide extra food on a tiny budget, cook
and clean, such largesse towards outsiders while
his wife suffered was touted by deceit as Christian
duty - in Gide's story the pastor prevented his son

From marrying the girl the married pastor wanted to
keep for himself, she discovered she loved the son
also but the young idiot became a Catholic priest &
she committed suicide; the lesson is selfishness and
presumption destroys the most precious things such
as relationships with one's own wife and kids