Monday, February 26, 2007

The Best Paragraph Ever Written

I believe this to be one of the finest paragraphs ever written. It makes you want to continue reading, its use of english is faultless and its pace and tone are exemplary (I'm sure the venerable Mr Zinsser would agree). The author is Eugene Peterson and he is writing about the pastoral ministry.

Here it is:

The adjective apocalyptic is not commonly found in company with the noun pastor. I can't remember ever hearing them in the same sentence. They grew up on different sides of the tracks. I'd like to play Cupid between the two words and see if I can instigate a courtship.


(from a piece entitled The Apocalyptic Pastor, found in various places including here)

I read the paragraph to my wife (whose name is a palindrome) and told her that I would give my life-savings to be able to write like that. She half-laughed, safe in the knowledge that were my intent true it wouldn't change our lives much. When I told her that I would sell this house to be able to write like that, she stood aghast and said "Surely you wouldn't!" I don't recall my response but it probably masked, for her sake, how real that desire was. Because it's the finest paragraph I have ever read.

3 comments:

Alan said...

I'd prefer "often" to "commonly" in the first sentence. But if you hadn't said "faultless" then I wouldn't have been so nitpicking.

Anonymous said...

Do you truly think this so wonderful? Do you truly? I ask only because I submitted the words "best paragraph ever written" into google, hoping to be amazed by the results, but then, to my eternal disappointment, this came up. No offence, but only by the most precarious means is this to be considered a 'good' paragraph, and by no means at all is it to be considered 'the best'.

minternational said...

Hello 'for i tire...'. I'm sorry you found the paragraph (and I guess the whole post) something of a disappointment. Just a few friends read this blog so the style is often deliberately exaggerated.

I DO think it's a really great paragraph and it had a big in-the-moment impact on me (I think Peterson uses language exceptionally well), but I wouldn't neccessarily expect others to think so.