2007-09-08 - 6:39 a.m.

Madeline L'Engle has died.

Here is a link to an acceptance speech of hers:

http://gos.sbc.edu/l/lengle.html

I appreciate her sentiment that there are not things which should not be written about, and that there is no pornography when a person is being honored and not objectified. Art is a celebration, expression and exploration of all things which make up our lives, the light and the dark.

I love that she expresses how for a writer the words come through and it is almost a subconscious process in which we are a conduit - and can neither will nor stop the resulting creation once open to the gift of tapping into the power of creativity. I love how she said she could not CHANGE the story of the death of Joshua in the Arm of the Starfish, even though it had a discomfort and disappointment for her and her son. I love that she attests that it was what it was and had become a reality seperate from her imagination. She no longer had control of her own creation. Thus it is with creative works. They become something uniquely independent in the world and creative works no longer belong to the crafter of them.

Her stories became my own, and became intimately a part of many a child's and adults consciousness. They were so much greater than Madeline herself.

What a gift she gave to the world, that Madeline L'Engle allowed herself to be that conduit, and herself up so that so many others could grow and learn and discover and develop our own souls as a result of reading of the uninhibited expression which she allowed to pour forth from hers.

�

�