Ilsa

by Madeleine L'Engle

“Most of us feel,” she said, “that the only point in our living at all is because of the few great individuals who inspire us to rise out of our mediocrity. But my God, my God in heaven, it is these individuals who have caused our downfall, who have made the world the confused and agonizing place that it is. Because they are greater than we are, they have betrayed us. They’ve made great discoveries, especially in science, and they’ve been able to teach us the mechanical side of these discoveries. But the more important, the spiritual aspect hardly anybody can understand. We haven’t progressed far enough along in civilization to be able to understand. It’s all wrong, the way we’ve grown intellectually, scientifically, much too quickly. In understanding we haven’t begun to catch up, we’re still back in the dark ages. I am forced, therefore,” she said, the slight slur suddenly sloughing off the edge of her words, so that she sounded like a schoolteacher once more, “to realize that the great individuals who are our only hope of salvation, instead of saving us, are destroying us.”

More amazing thought-time with Myra.