Member-only story
A Helping Hand
Write to register history, and name each thing. Write what should not be forgotten.
Isabel Allende
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“The more we cling to the overriding importance of parents and the more cosmological power we accord them, the less we notice the fathering and mothering afforded by the world every day in what it sends our way. The world affords nesting and sheltering, nourishing and quenching, adventuring and playing. The world is made less of nouns than of verbs. It doesn’t consist merely in objects and things; it is filled with useful, playful, and intriguing opportunities. The oriole doesn’t see a branch, but an occasion for perching; the cat doesn’t see a thing we call an empty box, but sees safe hiding for peering. The bear doesn’t smell honeycomb, but the opportunity for delicious feeding. The world is buzzing and blooming with information, which is always available and never absent.
— James Hillman
A number of people showed up at our door, one by one, offering help and advice to ease our adjustment to the French village we had chosen to live in. The first was a heavy set man who eventually became mayor, a retired professor at a nearby University and the one Communist in town. Word had gotten around that we were Americans, so naturally he wore his leather I-love-NY cap to go with his leather shorts. He assured us he was at…
