There is a story of an old man who lived by a river. In the spring the rains were heavy, and the river rose. The sheriff came by in his jeep, and said to the old man, “The river is going to flood, and I want to evacuate you.” 1/ The old man folded his arms confidently. “I have faith in God. God will take care of me.”
The sheriff shook his head and drove off.
The river continued to rise. It lapped about the old man’s house, rising up to the porch. The sheriff came by in a row boat, and said, 2/

Thread: Many people think that Camazotz in #wrinkleintime is an allegory for soviet-style communism. This is not the case. While Madeleine L'Engle was convinced that any *ism* leads to dehumanizing generalities, she knew that totalitarianism lurked under the surface of American democracy.

“Mrs Whatsit hates you,” Charles Wallace said.
And that was where IT made ITs fatal mistake, for as Meg said, automatically, “Mrs Whatsit loves me; that’s what she told me, that she loves me,” suddenly she knew.
She knew!
Love.
That was what she had that IT did not have. She had Mrs Whatsit’s love, and her father’s, and her
mother’s, and the real Charles Wallace’s love, and the
twins’, and Aunt Beast’s.
And she had her love for them.
But how could she use it? What was she meant to do?

I listen to the news and hear of war and rumor of war, of crime and wanton destruction and loss of humanity, and think of Ionesco’s brilliant play, Rhinoceros. It starts out in a small French village on a Sunday morning; everything is normal and ordinary; the people in the village are very much like the people we know, like us.

A thread with photos of the #lengleconference sessions from this past weekend. Starting with @HolyDreaming's opening keynote. Learning from Madeleine. With @StephanieCowell @JudithLindbergh @olugbemisola and Pamela Leggett

LOVERS APART
In what, love, does fidelity consist?
I will be true to you, of course.
My body’s needs I can resist,
Come back to you without remorse; And you, behind the footlight’s lure,
Kissing an actress on the stage,
Will leave her presence there, I’m sure,
As I my people on the page.

"The discoveries made since the heart of the atom was opened have changed our view of the universe and of Creation. Our great radio telescopes are picking up echoes of that primal opening which expanded into all the stars in their courses. 1/4 "The universe is far greater and grander and less predictable than anyone realized, and one reaction to this is to turn our back on the glory and settle for a small, tribal god who forbids questions of any kind. 2/4

"Friendship has become more and more a lost art in a society which feels that in order for a relationship to be fulfilled it must end in bed. A true friendship is always amoureuse; each encounter with a friend is a time of creation. "I see this most clearly in my professional life. My relationship with my editor has got to be amourous. This doesn’t mean sexual indulgence, it does mean something happening on that non-empirical level, in the mediating band between nightside and sunside.

"How did the Declaration of Independence begin? She had memorized it only that winter, not because she was required to at school, but simply because she liked it. “We hold these truths to be self-evident!” she shouted, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Thread on totalitarianism, Adapted from an unpublished manuscript excerpt of #awrinkleintime:

Afraid to ask the question that was really on her mind, Meg said, “But Father, how it capture Camazotz?” He said, “Well, Megatron, if you’re thinking that perhaps the brain simply marched in and took over all the minds on Camazotz, it isn’t nearly as simple as that.

Thread. "When I walk my dog at night, the route takes me past a Buddhist temple with a huge statue of Saint Shinran Shonin ... ... a Buddhist saint of the twelfth century. This particular statue was in Hiroshima when the bomb fell ...