By Maria Popova
The thoughts is a digital camera obscura consistently making an attempt to render a picture of actuality on the again wall of consciousness by the pinhole of consciousness, its aperture narrowed by our selective consideration, honed on our hopes and fears. In consequence, the projection we see contained in the darkish chamber will not be uncooked actuality however our hopes and fears magnified — a rendering not of the world as it’s however as we’re: frightened, confused, hopeful creatures making an attempt to make sense of the thriller that enfolds us, the thriller that we’re.
This reality-warping begins because the frights and fantasies of childhood, and evolves into the necessary illusions with out which our lives can be unlivable. It permeates the whole lot from our mythologies to our mathematics.
In the Dark (public library) by poet Kate Hoefler and artist Corinna Luyken brings that touching fundament of human nature to life with nice levity and sweetness, radiating a reminder that if we’re prepared to stroll by the darkness not with worry however with curiosity, we’re saved by surprise.
Two ladies enterprise cautiously into the darkish forest, satisfied that witches dwell there. Shadows fly throughout the sky that appear to substantiate their conviction and deepen their worry.
However web page by poetic web page, as they maintain strolling and maintain wanting, they arrive to see that the shadows should not witches however “a wooden filled with birds.”
The birds, they understand, are kites flown from the fingers of kindly strangers — individuals who have waded into the darkness to make their very own gentle, the sunshine of neighborhood and connection, the sunshine of surprise.
Couple In the Dark with Henry Beston’s lyrical century-old manifesto for how darkness nourishes the human spirit and the nice Zen trainer Thich Nhat Hanh on the four Buddhist mantras for turning fear into love, then revisit My Heart — the emotional intelligence primer that first enchanted me with Corinna Luyken’s work — and her tender painted poem The Tree in Me.
