Paul Wilke\'s in Due Season

Paul Wilke's In Due Season

Paul Wilke's experiences throughout his life leaves one wondering how much a person can endure before truly coming to their senses and realizing that life is not as simple and as clear-cut as one would like to believe. Starting with Paul's belief that in order to excel in life, one must provide the work in order to earn the gifts, this belief brought on by his belief in religion defined his thoughts. It is here that I believe that a person can truly do good when one has something firm to believe in. A person does not have to believe in a structured form of religion to have these "Catholic beliefs." The forgiveness that is given to an individual who believes in a certain structured religion should be offered to those who do not believe in the religion because that it what religion is all about, forgiveness and repentance.

Paul faces the test that everyone must go through in order to truly believe in something, he faces temptation and goes toward the fast and exciting life of temptation and completely forgets about his strong desire of becoming a Saint. His true desire was always there, as he was keen on helping others and making himself worthy of other people's worship, but he faced challenges that are very difficult to overcome. It cannot be easy to say no to something that one does not personally know the consequences of, and it is this the Paul had to learn the hard way, as do most people in their lives. He faces the inner doubts that every individual faces and explores as a way of truly knowing what it is that he wanted to dedicate his life to. This I felt was a pretty normal way of thinking, maybe not all of his actions, but the inner feelings he was having as a result of all of the things he was going through, such as questioning himself, really deciding on a direction for his life, and truly trying to figure himself out, are things that even I have gone through. His mockery of the "five-year plan" way of living is just him trying to say that not everything can be planned, no matter how of one devises a plan for the future, circumstances can change, and will change, and in order for one to truly believe that a step-by-step guide for the future is possible, one must also have something planned out that covers the surprises that one encounters in life. This is actually a very practical way of understanding the world and of living. Although it can seem a little depressing to think of life as not being in our hands, it is reassuring to think that if one expects life to be that way, one can make alternative plans to cover the unexpected.

There are certain things that Paul does not seem to talk too much about, but it just demonstrates to the readers what he sees as being important in his life and transformation, and what he does not deem important enough to mention or go in great detail of. His travels opens him up as a person and in a way reflects the processes that every individual should go through in order to truly understand what life is about. One cannot give advice on and truly believe in something that one has not experienced. Having the experiences in life is what makes one truly appreciate what one has and allows one to value the advice that one gives others. Upon meeting another real Saint, Paul gets a new meaning of what being a Saint is all about, and he could not have done that had he not gone through the experiences that he went through. Seeing every person as being their own Saint and having the divine power themselves gives an entirely different perspective on the definition of life and what it symbolizes to everyone.