I have always said that the way to deal with the pain of others is by sympathy, which is suffering with, and that the way to deal with ones own pain is to put one foot after the other. Yet I was never willing to suffer with others, and when my own pain hit me, I crawled into hole. Sympathy I have failed in, stoicism I have barely passed. But I have made straight As in irony- that curse, that evasion, that armor, that way of staying safe while seeming wise. One thing I have learned hard, if indeed I have learned it now: it is a reduction of our humanity to hide from pain, our own or others. to hide from anything. That was Marians text. Be open, be available, be exposed, be skinless. Skinless? Dance around in your bones.
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About Wallace Stegner, All the Little Live Things
Wallace Stegner, All the Little Live Things.