Madeleine L’Engle’s Memorial Service
It seems like a strange coincidence that after the weekend I randomly decided to read two Madeleine L’Engle novels, a friend would invite me to attend her Memorial Service today (a day before her 89th birthday) at The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in NYC.
The service taught me a lot about who Madeleine L’Engle was and made me appreciate her even more. This was a woman who truly loved to write. It was her passion, and she poured herself into her work. Read aloud at the service were several quotes from her over the years. I want to share a few of my favorite ones here.
“Our truest responsibility to the irrationality of the world is to paint or sing or write, for only in such response do we find the truth.”
“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”
“Artistic temperament sometimes seems a battleground, a dark angel of destruction and a bright angel of creativity wrestling.”
“A book comes and says, “Write me.” My job is to try to serve it to the best of my ability, which is never good enough, but all I can do is listen to it, do what it tells me and collaborate.”
“When language becomes exhausted, our freedom dwindles – we cannot think; we do not recognize danger; injustice strikes us as no more than ‘the way things are.’”
Madeleine is a creative inspiration and mentor to me as well as many others. She has touched many with her life work, and I know that she will be remembered for many years to come.
Here is a video created by the Bryant Park Project. It is a “Fourth Dimensional Tribute” to L’Engle that delves into tesseracts aka fourth dimensional cubes. Enjoy.
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer| This Week in Comics for November 29 » »
Leave a Comment