[pf] Dose of Madeleine L'Engle [was A new list serve)

by Molly Williams

30 December 2000 17:56 UTC

A Dose of Madeleine L'Engle! These are all from her journals, not from
her kids' books, but they parallel the same ideas found in Wrinkle in
Time, Swiftly Tilting Planet, etc.

------

"When I start a new seminar, I tell my students that I will undoubtedly
contradict myself, and that I will mean both things. But an acceptance
of contradiction is no excuse for fuzzy thinking. We do have to use our
minds as far as they will take us, yet acknowledging that they cannot
take us all the way." (A Circle of Quiet)

"We are a generation out of touch with reality. The 'realistic' novels
push me further away from the truth of things, rather than bringing me
closer. We cannot make mystery and miracle acceptable by trying to
constrict them into the language of the laboratory or the television
commercials." (Summer of the Great Grandmother)

"Give the public the 'image' of what it thinks it ought to be, or what
television commercials or glossy magazine ads have convinced us we ought
to be, and we will buy more of the product, become closer to the image,
and further from reality." (A Circle of Quiet)

"To make community misunderstood is a powerful weapon of the Destroyer
-- to promise permanence, to insist on perfection, to strangle freedom,
so that instead of having community, we have a concentration camp." (The
Irrational Season)

"'Daydreaming again, Madeleen? You'll never get anywhere that way.'
"Where did Matron want me to go? Our civilization was rushing toward the
devastation of the Second World War; the clouds were visible on the
horizon...; and yet in school we were being taught to live in a climate
where it was assumed that man is in control of the universe, and that he
is capable of understanding and solving all problems by his own effort
and virtue.
"What I was doing...was instinctively rejecting this false illusion,
refusing to think that our whole self is limited to that very small
fragment of self which we can know, control, and manipulate; that very
small fragment of self over which we have power." (Summer of the Great
Grandmother)

"When we are /self/-conscious, we cannot be wholly aware; we must throw
ourselves out first. This throwing ourselves away is the act of
creativity. So, when we wholly concentrate, like a child in play,...then
we share in the act of creating. We not only escape time, we also escape
our self-conscious selves." (A Circle of Quiet)

"It was not until I was nearly 40  that I discovered that higher math is
easier than lower math....It was not until I discovered higher math that
I understood 0x3=0. First of all, I had to accept that arithmatic is
simply an agreed-upon fiction which makes life easier. Secondly, I
realized that 0x3=0 is a philosophical rather than an arithmetical
problem....; any kind of hate which would annihilate, any kind of lust
for power which makes people expendable, is an example of three
multiplied by zero equals zero." (The Irrational Season)

"My moments of being most complete, most integrated, have come either in
complete solitude of when I am being part of a body made up of many
people going in the same direction." (ibid)

-------

~ Molly

Betsy Barnum wrote:
> 
> Molly Williams wrote:
> 
> > Yes, I agree with all this that Betsy wrote. I believe my thinking was
> > shaped radically by reading Madeleine L'Engle as a child.
> 
> It's so interesting you should bring up Madeleine L'Engle, Molly! I, too, 
>love her
> books, but didn't read them until after I was grown up. They are on my list 
>of "books
> to reread every 10 years or so," along with Tolkien's Ring trilogy, the 
>Narnia books
> and Don Quixote, my favorite book of all time and also formative for me.
> 
> But getting back to L'Engle. When I was writing what I said earlier, about 
>the seeming
> paradox of understanding both that my life matters and that the outcome is 
>not up to
> me, I almost wrote, "the balance of the universe doesn't depend on me." But 
>then I
> thought about Charles Wallace, in _The Wind in the Door_, when this one 
>little boy's
> life *was* at the fulcrum, the outcome *did* depend on him. And even though 
>it's a
> novel, not "true," it has always intrigued me to think that there is a 
>balance in the
> universe--of light and darkness, as Fox put it, or of life and death, or 
>whatever you
> want to call it (I know this is terribly dualistic, and I think there's also 
>another
> way to understand it but I can't even come close to putting it in words).
> 
> So if there is a balance, and surely it is a dynamic balance, there must be 
>some point
> where the balance tips, a fulcrum point, and that could be someone's very 
>ordinary
> life. It's like an individual vote--most of the votes people cast add to the 
>bulk on
> one side or the other, but if the race is close, a few of those millions of 
>votes are
> at the balance point, tipping the total one way or the other. No one knows  
>if their
> vote is or will be the deciding one, but someone's is. No one knows if their 
>life is
> at the balance point, if their decisions are momentous in terms of the 
>outcome or how
> the balance tips, but we, perhaps, need to live as if our lives were that
> important--not because we are personally so important but because it could be 
>our life
> that is at that balance point (in a way, all of us are, we are all at the 
>balance
> point....)
> 
> Well, this is fascinating and all but the thoughts and words are floating 
>around me in
> a swirling cloud and I can't follow them anymore! I didn't get to bed until 
>about 1:30
> last night because a friend and her 18-year-old son, who live about 80 miles 
>from
> here, returned from a visit to the Northwest yesterday, their plane was 
>delayed so it
> arrived at 11:30 p.m., and the snowstorm we had meant nearly everyone 
>arriving at the
> airport was trying to get taxis home (intrepid local family and friends, like 
>me,
> didn't want to venture out!). So Becky and her son finally got a cab to my 
>house,
> where she had left her car, and they spent the night here rather than 
>attempting an
> 80-mile drive at 1 in the morning after 8 inches of snow! So we were up, 
>getting beds
> ready, feeding them a little snack, hearing the story of their flight delay, 
>telling
> them about the snow, and everyone finally settled in at about 1:30.
> 
> My house is too big, really, for the 3 people and one feline who live here, 
>but it is
> very nice to be able to easily accommodate guests in comfort and privacy. I'll
> confess, pf-ers, if I have a weakness when it comes to consumer spending 
>(aside from
> the occasional splurge on books or CDs), it is for bedding, soft sheets, 
>thick wool
> blankets, plump pillows, colorful comforter covers....and when unexpected 
>guests show
> up, I'm glad I have all those extra sheets and pillows and blankets! And 
>especially
> when it's below zero, as last night, I'm glad I can offer warmth, even 
>luxurious
> warmth, to guests.
> 
> A few thoughts on cosmology and the morality of the universe, finished up by 
>comments
> on blankets! It *is* time for me to go to bed!
> 
> Betsy
> 
> --
> Betsy Barnum
> bbarnum@wavetech.net
> http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/1624
> 
> **************************************
> No politics, song, religion, behavior, or what not,
> is of account, unless it compare with the
> amplitude of the earth.
> Unless it face the exactness, vitality, impartiality,
> Rectitude of the Earth.
> 
> -- Walt Whitman
> 
>