The Rock That Is Higher: Story as Truth

by Madeleine L'Engle

We are not meant to be plaster saints who are never frightened or angry. These are human emotions and few people can avoid them. However, we are not meant to be stuck in them, but to turn to God and move on.

If story is not true, is it fit for children? Children love story because it is true.

If there is no real enemy, or if the real enemy is too fearful to be faced, then one has to be made up. That frightens me more than the real enemy.

Oh man, this line from a book that L'Engle wrote in 1991 has been sitting extremely heavily with me.

Myth is the foundation of conceptual thought.

All men have within them the true princess, if they’re wise enough to find her, just as all women are also the younger son, if we’re willing to be open and vulnerable.

She is one of the bravest people I know, but she needs to express grief over what is happening to her body, and everybody expects her just to go on being brave. Right now she needs to weep like a child, and such weeping embarrasses people.