The Awakening of Miss Prim

by Natalia Sanmartín Fenollera

This was where she discovered that intelligence, this wonderful gift, grows in silence, not in noise.

if you were convinced that the world had forgotten how to think and teach, if you believed it had discarded the beauty of art and literature, if you thought it had crushed the power of the truth, would you let that world educate your children?”

traditions are a bulwark against the decline of culture,

Nobody begins the search unless they’ve already found what they’re looking for. And no one finds what they’re looking for—the One they’re looking for—if that One doesn’t take the initiative and allow Himself to be found. It’s a game in which one player holds all the cards.”

It’s been my touchstone, the line that’s split my life in two and given it absolute meaning. But I’d be lying if I said it’s been easy. It’s not easy, and anyone who says it is is fooling themselves. It was catharsis, a shocking trauma, open-heart surgery, like a tree torn from the ground and replanted elsewhere. Like what one imagines a child experiences during the beautiful, awesome process of birth.”

Young people today extend childhood well beyond the chronologically allotted time. They’re immature and irresponsible at an age when they should no longer be so. But at the same time they lose their simplicity, their innocence and freshness early. Strange as it sounds, they grow old early.”

“Pessimistic? Not at all, my dear. What is a gatekeeper to do if not to warn of what she’s seen? Gatekeepers aren’t optimistic or pessimistic, Prudencia. They’re either awake or asleep.”