Unsheltered

by Barbara Kingsolver

When someone mattered like that, you didn’t lose her at death. You lost her as you kept living.

“Holding and synthesizing information in your brain creates your personality. You’re surrendering your personality to an electronic device in your pocket.”

No creature is easily coerced to live without its shelter.” “Without shelter, we stand in daylight.” “Without shelter, we feel ourselves likely to die.”

“I see. Illegal Mexican immigrants invaded your plant, wrestled the white guys to the ground, escorted them out, and then told the company, ‘Sure boss, we don’t need any union wages.’ That’s how it went down?” “Not exactly.” “The laws changed so plant owners could break strikes and bust up the unions, back in the eighties. I know that for a fact, I was covering labor news at the time. The pay scale collapsed. You know this, Nick. Weren’t you forced to take early retirement?”

“A common mistake in thinking about the past is to assume people were more childlike than we are now.”